Your future, our focus
The men of Northwest College hoops came up short in last week’s games, falling to Sheridan College by a score of 81-78 on Feb. 5 and by a 90-74 score to the Pronghorns of Gillette College on Saturday.
Facing Sheridan, coach Jay Collins and his Trappers (9-17 overall, 1-9 in Region IX) led 46-42 at halftime and had every opportunity to win it late with a break or two.
A Josh Petteno three in the final minute before intermission had NWC ahead four, 44-40, and Jerome Mabry made it a six-point cushion, 46-40, before the Generals got the final bucket of the half.
Sheridan (18-8, 6-6) held slim leads in the early going of the second half, but the Trappers drew within one, 79-78, with just 67 seconds on the game clock after Mabry hit both ends of a one-and-one.
Jovon McLanahan duplicated Mabry’s feat on Sheridan’s behalf with 5.2 ticks left and a Kyle Brown three at the buzzer refused to fall. The Generals finished the half with 39 points to NWC’s 32.
Mabry led the Trappers with 22 points while Petteno added 18.
Sheridan throttled Brown, holding him to nine points, and carried the day at the free throw line. The Generals enjoyed a 12-point bulge at the line,
making 21-of-23 to the Trappers’ 9-of-12.
Rebounds were a push at 34 for Northwest to Sheridan’s 33. NWC point guard Alan Swenson missed a double-double by a whisker with nine assists in support of his nine points.
Saturday with Gillette in town, the Trappers led 16-15 when Petteno hit a free throw at 12:47 of the first half, but that would be their biggest lead. NWC trailed by five at 5:50 and drew within one at the 3:24 mark, 37-36. However, the Pronghorns (21-4, 7-3) pulled away to lead by six at halftime, 42-36.
Lead changes came early and often in the early going before Gillette hammered out those six points of separation at halftime.
Northwest found itself down 12, 52-40, at 18:09 but reeled the Pronghorns back to within two, 59-57, on a 3-pointer each from Petteno, Jahquel Goss and Rambo Badyal. By the time a three in transition from Brown went in at 10:28, though, Gillette had regained the advantage, 69-60.
Brown, Petteno and Max Dehon accounted for 25, 16 and 13 points on the Trappers’ side of the scoreboard.
Gillette led by as much as 21 points in the game, however the score was deadlocked four times with 10 lead changes.
Petteno pulled down eight rebounds to lead Northwest, which suffered a 10-board deficit, 40-30.
Swenson was credited with six assists.
The Trappers hosted Central Wyoming Wednesday night and are on the road to Casper Saturday.
Northwest — Mabry 22, Petteno 18, Brown 9, Swenson 9, Badyal 8, Jacob Schilder 6, Dehon 4, Goss 2.
Northwest — Brown 25, Petteno 16, Dehon 13, Swenson 8, Mabry 4, Goss 3, Badyal 3, Axel Hohenstein 2.