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Turnovers, Cold Shooting Doom Northwest
The Northwest College men’s basketball team fell by a 99-72 count on the road at Casper College on Saturday. The loss dropped the Trappers to 2-3 in Region IX North play and 13-6 overall this season.
Heading into the contest, head coach Bryan Erickson noted his team would have to rebound well and protect the basketball against the Thunderbirds’ pressure. They accomplished only one of those goals on Saturday.
The Trappers finished the contest with a 48-33 advantage on the glass. That was more than undone by the 28 turnovers Northwest was guilty of committing in the game. The Trappers were also doomed by a 38.2 percent night shooting the basketball.
Casper scored 17 of the game’s first 23 points, putting the Trappers in a double-digit hole on the scoreboard with scarcely five minutes elapsed from the clock. By the midway point of the first half, Northwest was staring up at a 29-10 deficit.
Northwest never got closer than 15 points for the remainder of the first half. The Thunderbirds carried a 49-27 lead into the intermission, then pushed that gap to 30 points in the early minutes of the second half before the Trappers clawed the spread.
Junior Coleman and Jeffrey Solarin each finished with 17 points to lead Northwest College in the contest. Solarin was also good for a team-best eight rebounds, but the tandem received little in the way of support for the Trappers. The pair were responsible for taking 30 of the Trappers’ 76 shots in the game.
Franklin Uzonwanne and Gary Gordon were the only other Northwest College players to net more than five points in the contest. Both finished with eight points.
Casper College was led by Remi Dibo’s 32 points. The Thunderbirds had two other players also reach double figures in the game. Corey Spence dished out 13 assists for Casper in the contest.
As a team, the Thunderbirds took seven fewer shots than Northwest in the contest, but capitalized on a 52.2 percent accuracy rate that included 10- for-21 from behind the 3-point arc.
The win lifted Casper into sole possession of first place in Region IX North with a 5-0 regional mark and a 14-3 overall record. The Trappers, 2-3 in league play, sit in fifth place overall, tied on record with Little Big Horn College.
The Trappers welcome Miles Community College (1-2 in Region IX, 7-9 overall) to town on Wednesday night for a men’s-women’s doubleheader. The women’s game tips off at 5:30 p.m. with the men’s game scheduled to tip off at approximately 7:30 p.m.