Your future, our focus
7th in North
With a division title out of reach, the NWC men’s basketball team will now turn its focus to improving its postseason circumstances.
The Trappers (14-10, 4-7 in conference) lost two straight games during the past week and will look to avoid a third when they travel to Casper on Saturday to take on the third-place Thunderbirds (14-9, 7-3).
Another loss would likely cement Northwest’s place in the bottom half of the Region IX North division, making a tournament run even more difficult.
Head coach Brian Erickson wants to use the team’s final five games as a building block for the regional tournament, both in terms of seeding and momentum.
“Each one of those games is going to be the deciding factor where we end up, who we play first in that first round,” Erickson said. “The biggest thing is the teams that play well at the end of the year do well in the tournament.”
Northwest will need to play smart with a well-executed defensive game plan to down the T-Birds, who beat the Trappers 84-70 in Powell on Jan. 8.
Extra attention will be given to T-Bird guard Jay Wright, who scored 17 points and handed out eight assists in last month’s contest.
“He’ll run the show for them,” Erickson said. “He gets in the lane looking to pass, he can score it, he’s a really good player.”
But rather than worrying about what Casper will do, the Trappers need to take care of their own business and, specifically, the ball, Erickson said.
“You can’t go on the road and make mistakes and win,” he said. “And if you do it’s going to be a tight one.”
The Trappers did not play mistake-free against Miles City on Feb. 1, and they lost 92-89 in overtime, despite having six players score in double figures.
Northwest trailed by 11 at half and came back to lead by three with less than a minute to go but couldn’t seal the deal against Miles City.
A missed layup that would have put the Trappers up five gave second life to the Pioneers, who hit a 3-pointer to tie the game
“We gotta execute down the stretch a lot better,” Erickson said.
Sophomore post Lawrence Fejokwu led the Trappers with 19 points and nine boards. He also had a block, assist and a steal.
“Lawrence, in the first half just dominated,” Erickson said. “They really couldn’t stop him.”
Fellow big man Franklin Uzonwanne had 15 points, seven rebounds and two steals.
Miles City gave Fejokwu (9-for 17 from the floor) and Uzonwanne (just 4-for-14) more defensive attention in the second half.
“Miles City came out and started doubling the post in the second half to try to take our bigs out of it,” Erickson said.
EJ Hubbard scored 17 points to lead Northwest’s guards. The freshman also had three rebounds and two assists
Hubbard’s emergence as a second-unit scorer has helped make up for Northwest’s lack of backcourt depth.
“EJ Hubbard has really stepped up, but the depth there now for us, it’s really not there,” Erickson said.
Starting guards Gary Gordon (10 points, 3-for-12 shooting) and Gabe Solarin (13 points, 4-for-15) struggled from the field.
“We need Gabe and Gary to keep shooting that much but we need them to be more efficient,” Erickson said.
Freshman Colin May added 11 points (2-for-5 on 3-pointers, 5-of-5 from the free throw line) and three rebounds.
Miles City’s Jonothan Dogbo had a game-high 30 points (5-for-5 from beyond the arc) and seven rebounds.
Erickson said Dogbo’s lights-out shooting (all 3s were made in the first half) was more than NWC was prepared for.
“We were more worried about him taking it to the hoop off the dribble,” the coach said.
Gillette took down the Trappers behind a more balanced attack and strong team shooting night.
The Pronghorns shot 50.8 percent from the floor and nailed 13 of 28 3-pointers.
The Trappers shot only 34.5 percent but used a slower tempo to control the game and went into halftime down only four points.
“We really slowed the ball down,” Erickson said. “We felt we could score on them (in a half-court offense).”
Northwest kept pace with Gillette until about halfway through the second, when the Pronghorns “couldn’t miss from the 3-point line,” Erickson said.
“We tried some different things but when they’re making shots like that they’re going to be hard to beat, that’s for sure,” the coach said.
Fejokwu and Uzonwanne were unable to get much going against Gillette’s defense and the burden of attack was left to the Trapper backcourt.
“They doubled the post throughout the night so any time we got it down to one of our bigs they were looking to try to kick it to one of our guards,” Erickson said.
Tyler Chandler led Northwest with 16 points. The redshirt freshman shot 4-of-4 (including one 3-pointer) from the field and was 7-of-8 from the foul line. He also picked up two steals.
Gordon netted 15 points and had six boards.
Fejokwu had eight points and rebounds and Hubbard added seven points and six rebounds.
The Trappers return home Feb. 12 to host second-place Sheridan (20-5, 8-3) at 7:30 p.m. in the Cabre Gym.