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Northwest Finishes Fourth In Region IX North
Ty Ackelson and Diego Pasos combined for 21 points on Sophomore Night as Northwest College wrapped up its regular season with a 79-67 win over Dawson Community College. The Trappers had led by as many as 21 points late.
“It was good to win the last one,” said Trapper head coach Andy Ward. “Now we’ve got 10 days to get ready for the tournament.”
The key stretch of Tuesday’s game came during the final 90 seconds of the first half. After trailing by a small amount for much of the period, Northwest was finally able to grab a one-point lead. The Trappers then forced a turnover with full court pressure and scored, followed by another steal and a Guilherme Carabagiale slam to really bring the Cabre Gymnasium crowd to its feet.
Feeding off that energy, the Trappers forced a shot clock violation on Dawson’s next possession, leaving them with three seconds to cover the length of the court. As it turns out, that was precisely enough time to provide Junior Coleman with a shot from above the arc and send the Trappers into intermission with a 37-29 lead.
“It was big,” Ward said of the late first-half sequence. “It enabled us to get some momentum.”
Armed with that energy, Northwest emerged in the second half and continued to draw away from Dawson. The Trappers stretched their advantage to 21 points, 79-58, before the visiting team closed out the contest with the game’s final nine points.
Ackelson finished with 11 points. Pasos added 10 as the only sophomores on the Northwest roster numbered among five Trapper players to reach double figures in the scoring column. Jeffrey Solarin led Northwest with 16 points. Chris Hansen and Junior Coleman each followed with 13 points.
“Jeffrey’s playing with a lot of confidence right now,” said Ward. “He’s being very efficient. He only missed one shot.”
As a team, Northwest enjoyed an efficient night shooting the basketball. The Trappers connected on better than 58 percent of their shots from the floor, including a 70 percent showing from inside the arc as Northwest connected on 24 of 34 close range shot attempts.
Northwest also enjoyed a commanding 37-20 advantage on the rebounding glass.
Tuesday night’s win came on the heels of an 82-62 Saturday win over Gillette College. Solarin had a huge night for the Trappers in that win, knocking home 28 points and narrowly missing a double-double with a team-high nine rebounds as well.
Hansen chipped in 18 points as the Trappers took control of the game early behind a defensive effort that limited Gillette to just 23 first-half points. The Trappers led 39-23 at the half as the team forced 23 turnovers in the contest.
The Trappers’ only blemish in recent action came in a 92-84 road loss at Western Wyoming. Northwest trailed by six at intermission and was never able to make up the distance during a fast and frantic second half that saw the two schools combine to add 106 points on the scoreboard.
Northwest wraps up the regular season with a 22-8 overall record. The Trappers were 10-6 in Region IX play, two games behind North division champion Miles Community College and one game in back of Casper and Sheridan.
The Trappers are expected to play North Platte in the opening round of the Region IX men’s tournament, which will be held in Scottsbluff, Neb.
“We’ll spend some time watching film, some time working on little details that we can improve,” Ward said of how the Trappers will spend their next week in preparation for the Region IX tournament.