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Key Games Against Casper, Miles This Week
The Northwest College men’s basketball team blasted Little Big Horn College 96-52 in its only action last week. The win sets the stage for a pair of key Region IX North games against Casper and Miles this week.
“We needed to get a win and to play at home and get back on track,” said Trapper head coach Andy Ward. “The thing I liked about this game was we got to play everyone and that doesn’t always happen.”
The Trappers were afforded that luxury by virtue of a 56-31 first half that removed all doubt as to the game’s outcome. More impressive than the margin was the fact the Trappers accomplished that feat without a pair of starters on the court.
Freshman Chris Hansen sat out the game as he continues to recover from an ankle sprain suffered the previous week. Sophomore Diego Pasos joined him on the shelf after also suffering an ankle sprain in practice the day before the contest.
“We probably could have played Chris if we’d needed, but we elected not to. With us having the weekend off and the Casper College game coming off, we chose to give him a couple more days to rest and recover,” Ward said. “Diego’s injury was a little more fresh, so we held him out and hoped the other guys would be able to step up and play.”
And step up they did. Guilherme Carabagiale took advantage of the rare starting opportunity created by the injuries to drop in a game-high 17 points for the Trapper men. Pietro de Andrade added 14 points off the bench as another of the Trappers’ six scorers to finish in double figures.
“We’ve talked to Guiherme about him giving us a scoring punch from the bench,” Ward said. “He got after it at both ends of the floor and was just really aggressive in the game. Pietro played well and went up aggressively as well. He gave us some nice interior firepower.”
The Trappers looked inside frequently against the undersized Rams. In addition to Carabagiale and de Andrade, Northwest received 16 points and a game-best eight rebounds from Jeffrey Solarin. Konner Frey, Jonathan Wakelin and Zach Stanley all finished with 10 points each.
“Jonathan had a good size advantage and posted his guy really well,” said Ward. “The guys did a good job of getting the ball to him and he finished when he was around the basket.”
Northwest College heads to Casper on Wednesday. The Trappers are back home on Saturday against Miles in what could be a critical weekend to their Region IX North title chances.
“We go on the road against a very good team that beat us here,” Ward said. “We’re looking for a good week of practice in preparation for playing them. We’ll have to shoot the ball better from the perimeter and we’ll have to play better defensively than we have been, particularly in the second half.”
The Trappers are currently two games behind Casper in the regional standings. Sheridan and Miles are also in front of Northwest College in the tightly bunched field.
NWC 96, LITTLE BIG HORN 52
Ty Ackelson 2, Guilherme Carabagiale 17, Jeffrey Solarin 16, Junior Coleman 8, Konner Frey 10, Zach Stanley 10, Italo de Oliveria 2, Pietro de Andrade 14, Devin Gonsalez 1, Jonathan Wakelin 10, Hudson Filho 3, Jeremy Beehler 3.