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Tied For Third in Region IX-North
Two home wins elevated the Northwest College men’s basketball team out of the cellar and into third place in Region IX North.
Northwest beat Western Wyoming 71-67 on Friday and took out Central 83-68 on Saturday to improve to 13-8 overall and 4-2 in Region IX.
The Trappers’ four-game win streak pulled them even with Western (15-6, 4-2), and behind Casper (15-6, 6-1) and No. 4 Gillette (22-0, 5-0).
NWC head coach Brian Erickson said the Trappers are playing smarter, more aggressive basketball.
“Against both those teams we really talked about attacking them, getting the ball inside and playing a little faster,” Erickson said.
That decision helped the Trappers shoot better than 50 percent from the field in both games.
Grantham Gillard again led the NWC offense with stellar outside shooting (9-for-15 on 3-pointers) and 38 total points over the weekend.
The freshman guard has eclipsed 20 points in three of his last four games, including a 25-point effort Saturday against Central.
“One, we’re playing a lot more unslfish — moving the ball more, offense is clicking. I think a lot of that comes on shot selection, too,” Erickson said. “Grantham, I think he’s getting about the same amount of shots as before, but he’s taking better shots and his percentage has gone up a little bit.”
Gillard combined with freshman Sukhjot Bains (22 points, 13 rebounds) to lead a furious second half charge that turned Saturday’s close game into a double-digit blowout.
Northwest fell behind 65-60 before finishing the night on a 23-3 run thanks to a late move to a zone defense and careful shot selection.
Erickson said Central (9-13, 3-6) is “a real fundamental team” that will stay dedicated to its offensive system regardless of the circumstance.
Northwest went back to the zone defense with which it opened the game, and Central struggled to find openings.
“I think they get uncomfortable not runing their offense,” Erickson said. “They’re well-coached and taught to keep running their offense, and I think we threw them off their game.”
The defensive effort was matched by the offense in the second half.
After a slow start put the Trappers into a 17-2 hole, the NWC offense settled down and returned to the aggression that had served them well before.
“The first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes were the exact opposite,” Erickson said. “The big is being the aggressor. When we came out I thought we did that for the most part against Western Wyoming.”
Sophomores Jordon Rood and Clint Bateman, and freshman Levi Londole and Joel Maumba each scored seven points for Northwest.
Erickson said he liked the distribution of the offense, which is producing different players as the team’s secondary and tertiary scorers each night.
“If you look at it, Grantham’s playing real well,” Erickson said. “Every game we’ve had some different guys up there. Look at our teams last year, we had two guys scoring 20 points a game.”
The Trappers were balanced across four scorers against Western on Friday.
Gillard and Maumba scored 13 apiece while Bains added 12 and Rood had 11.
Gillard and Bains tied for the team lead with seven rebounds and Bateman led with five assists.
Northwest again pulled away during the second half, but couldn’t put the Mustangs away as easily as the Rustlers.
Gillard hit back-to-back threes to push the Trapper lead to 49-36, and Bains’ drive on Northwest’s next possession gave the Trappers their largest lead of the night at 51-36.
Northwest relied less on the 3-pointer against Western, but still shot an efficient 7-for-14 from deep.
“Against both those games we really tried to talk about attacking them, getting the ball inside and playing a little faster,” Erickson said. “Guys saw some more opportunities to get to the rim (after) we settled early in the game for outside shots against the zone.”
Western didn’t quit after falling behind 15 points. The Mustangs went on a 16-7 run to cut it to 58-52 with six minutes left to play.
Londole scored to reestablish a double-digit advantage but two straight Western threes, one on each side of a timeout, made it a one possession game at 67-65.
With less than 20 seconds left in the game and the Trappers up two, Rood was intentionally fouled. He made his first free throw but missed his second, however, he got his own rebound and was fouled again. Rood sunk both foul shots to put the Trappers ahead 70-65 with 15.8 seconds remaining.
The Trappers were 14-of-24 from the foul line.
RANKED REMATCH
The Trappers traveled to Casper on Wednesday afternoon for their second contest against the Thunderbirds.
Results can be found at facebook.com/powelltribune.
Northwest then hosts No. 4 Gillette at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
The Trappers lost in Gillette 77-64 on Jan. 9 despite going into halftime tied at 31-31.
Now on their home court, coming off a hot streak, the Trappers feel more confident for round two.
“We played them well for a half, but that was kind of our first game when we started making some strides,” Erickson said. “And now we’re clicking a little bit.”
Gillette and No. 3 North Idaho are the last remaining undefeated teams in NJCAA Division I.
Gillette’s Kavell Bigby-Williams leads the nation with 13.3 rebounds per game and 6.5 blocks per game. He is also the Pronghorns’ leading scorer with 16 points per game.
Four other Pronghorns — Cameron Oluyitan (14.7 ppg), Marqueese Gibson (13.8), Joel Thabize (10.9) and Deishaun Booker (10.0) — average at least 10 points per game.
Gillette leads the nation in rebounds and blocks.