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Trapper Women Ousted In Semifinals
The Northwest College Trappers women’s basketball team was ousted from the Region IX tournament with an 81-74 overtime loss to Gillette College in the semifinals in Scottsbluff, Neb. The loss denied the Trappers a spot in the regional championship game and capped a 17-16 year for the team.
“The girls came ready to play, and I’m proud of them,” said Trapper head coach Janis Beal, who was a player for NWC the last time the women’s basketball team appeared in a regional semifinal contest. “I’m proud of the effort they showed on the court. We’ve got nothing to hang our heads about, but at the same time you always wish you’d gotten just one more.”
The game was a back-and-forth affair pretty much the entire way. Northwest briefly held an eight-point lead in the first half at 23 15. Gillette’s winning margin was the biggest advantage the Pronghorn could muster in 45 minutes of action. In between, the lead changed hands 11 times while the scoreboard was tied another 14 instances.
The Trappers had an opportunity to win the contest at the end of regulation as the team dialed up a play in the waning seconds with the game knotted at 66-66.
“We wanted to get the last shot,” said Beal. “We went with something that has been successful for us and that we’d used earlier in the year when we beat Miles. Andressa (Augusto) had a good game going for us, so we wanted to bring her off a screen and give her the chance to attack the front of the rim.”
Those plans changed on the fly, however.
“We brought her off a double screen at the 3-point arc and Gillette was there with a double or triple team on her,” said Beal. “She was able to get the ball to Kennedy Allen who was wide open for an uncontested 17-foot jumper.”
Allen’s shot looked good leaving the sophomore’s hand, but hit long off the iron and bounded away. A possible follow-up off an offensive rebound also missed, although the shot may have come after the buzzer even if it had dropped for the Trappers.
“I’ll take that shot every time,” Beal said of her team’s final look in regulation. “Kennedy Allen wide open is a shot I’ll take any day of the week in that situation.”
In the overtime, foul trouble began rearing its head on the Trappers. Imari Simpson fouled out late in regulation on a play that allowed the Pronghorn to knot the contest at 66-66 with a pair of free throws with 26 seconds remaining. As the overtime period started, both Allen and Augusto were also whistled for their fifth fouls.
“The foul trouble really came into play in the overtime,” said Beal, whose team was outshot 35-21 at the foul line. “The players we had fouling out, those are some key players that have made some big plays for us throughout the year.”
For the game, Augusto finished with 19 points for the Trappers. Allen added 14 more while Leslie Blackburn, who finished the night with four fouls, reached double figures with 12 points. Simpson, Savannah Minder and Leslie Thronburg all had eight points each.
“We had some kids in the second half and the overtime who were forced to come in and play some big minutes for us,” said Beal. “We did a good job of hitting the free throws we got, but we weren’t able to get to the line as much as Gillette did in that game.”
The two schools had split their regular-season meetings.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” said Beal. “We’re two schools that know each other well and that split in the regular season. We were expecting a battle and we got one.”
Both Allen and Augusto were named to the all-tournament team following the conclusion of the Region IX tournament, which was won by tournament host Western Nebraska.
At 17-16, the Trappers’ overall record for the season might not seem flashy. For Beal, who recorded her first postseason coaching victory at Northwest with the Trappers’ opening-round win against Otero, the benefits of guiding her team to the semifinal round are immense, however.
“It’s a step forward,” said Beal. “It will help us get those kids that we haven’t been able to get to come in here in the past because we haven’t advanced in the tournament. It gives our freshmen a taste of what it’s like and a desire to just go a little bit further next year when they’re back as sophomores.”
Seven members of the Trappers’ postseason roster, including Augusto, are eligible to return to the program. Minder, Allen, Thronburg and Blackburn will graduate from the program this spring.