Your future, our focus
The NWC women’s basketball team won its first two regular-season games behind a dynamic scoring attack at the Miles City Tournament over the weekend.
Four Trappers scored in double digits against Bismarck State Friday, and another three did the same against Rocky Mountain JV Saturday.
“This team has a lot of different players that can step up and contribute on any given night,” said head coach Janis Beal.
Sophomore Imari Simpson made the most of a limited workload in Northwest’s 81- 69 victory over the Bismarck State Mystics.
The second-year forward had 17 points (all in the second half), four rebounds and four steals in just 18 minutes on the court.
Beal said foul trouble hindered Simpson early on, but she “came out in that second half and played really well.”
Sophomore point guard Andressa Augusto filled the stat sheet with 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Augusto also turned the ball over five times, some due to being too aggressive when trying to advance the ball up court.
“I’m OK with a few of those turnovers,” Beal said. “I want them to push the ball.”
Sophomore Leanne Winterholler shot four of 12 from beyond the arc for a total of 14 points.
“She definitely has the green light,” Beal said. “We want her to shoot it when she has an open look.”
But Winterholler did more than just shoot. The Lovell native recorded nine rebounds, three steals and three blocks.
Freshman Dana Bjorhus added 11 points, two rebounds and four steals. Bjorhus connected all three of her 3-point attempts.
Freshman Mandee Christensen nearly made it five Trappers with 10 or more points but fell just short, with nine points off four of-six shooting in 24 minutes.
“She attacked the basket really well,” Beal said.
Sarah Nielsen scored six points and grabbed five boards in 15 minutes.
As a team, the Trappers shot 45.1 percent from the floor, including 39.1 percent from 3-point range. The team made eight of its 10 free-throw attempts.
Northwest’s defense held the Mystics to 36.1 percent shooting, but did allow 21 free-throw attempts.
The Trappers ramped up their offense Saturday against the Rocky Mountain JV Battlin’ Bears.
Northwest made 50 percent of its shots, including 44.4 percent of its threes on its way to a 91-52 blowout.
Bjorhus led all scorers with 19 points. She filled out her line with seven rebounds, three steals and an assist.
Beal said having wing players who aren’t afraid to crash the glass is going to give Northwest an advantage.
“She’s aggressive blocking out,” Beal said of Bjorhus. “Any time we can get some guards with rebounds it’s going to help us.”
Augusto made four of her eight 3-point tries and scored a total of 18 points against Rocky. She also had five assists and chipped in with three rebounds.
Freshman TaNeil Clayton did a little bit of everything for the Trappers. Clayton scored nine points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out a team-high six assists.
Five of Clayton’s points came via free throw.
“She can shoot the three,” Beal said. “But she’s really good at attacking the basket.”
Hatti Snyder led the Trappers with eight rebounds in just 13 minutes. The freshman scored four points and grabbed two steals.
Winterholler made three of five 3-pointers on her way to 11 points.
Simpson was called for four fouls in just six minutes of playing time. She scored six points and came down with five boards in her brief stint on the court.
The Trappers will head to Salt Lake City for a three-game tournament. Northwest will open with Utah State University today (Thursday), then play the College of Southern Idaho Friday before closing the weekend with a game against the host Salt Lake City College.
Beal said her team will need to play better to produce the same results as this past weekend.
“Some of those mistakes we got away with last weekend we won’t be able to get away with (in Salt Lake),” she said.