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Solarin Suffers Foot Injury Against Colorado
The Northwest College men’s basketball team held double-digit leads in the second half of both of its games at the First Bank of Wyoming Shootout but came away with only one, single-point victory.
The Trappers led Laramie County by 10 halfway through the second period but lost 89-82 Friday evening, and led the Colorado Kings (an all-star team) by 20 before narrowly escaping with an 81-80 win Saturday afternoon.
Head coach Brian Erickson said Northwest (11-5, 1-2 in Region IX North) has shown it can play with the best of its region, but has to minimize mistakes and close out games.
“It’s really the best we’ve played all year,” Erickson said of the Trappers’ effort versus Laramie.
But Northwest committed 29 turnovers, 13 more than the Golden Eagles. Those turnovers, combined with minor mistakes like neglecting to box out, doomed the Trappers down the stretch.
“They’re really small mistakes, but they end up being big,” Erickson said.
The last time these two teams faced off the Trappers lost 95- 73 in Cheyenne, and Erickson noted a marked improvement in Saturday’s seven-point loss.
“You hope to take some things from it,” he said. “I think they (the Trappers) understand they can play with a lot of teams in our region.”
After two big Laramie County comebacks, the Trappers rebounded to build a five-point lead with 2:50 left in the game, but the Golden Eagles scored seven unanswered points in just 56 seconds to pull ahead 82-80.
Northwest would quickly tie things up at 82 but would not score in the game’s final 1:19 and watched as Laramie hit its free throw (30-of-39 for the game) to ice the 89-82 win.
The Trappers went into the half up 41-38 after leading 16-6 with 11:49 to play in the first frame. Northwest came out of the locker room strong and increased its advantage to 66- 56 with 10:43 left, but Laramie cut it back down to a five-point lead just one minute later.
The Golden Eagles took a brief 69-68 lead with 8:25 to go but Northwest went back up by one just a few minutes later, on its way to the five-point lead that wouldn’t hold.
Sophomore Franklin Uzonwanne had a dominant game in the loss. The 6-foot-7 forward scored 16 points and grabbed 15 boards in just 19 minutes on the court.
“He’s starting to play like he should,” Erickson said. “He’s starting to play harder and he’s playing with his motor.”
Guard Gabe Solarin led the Trappers with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 2-of-3 from behind the 3-point line. The sophomore added two rebounds but fouled out after playing 25:30.
Sophomore Gary Gordon was second on the team in scoring with 18 points and second in rebounds with nine. The point guard was 5-for-8 from the floor and 8-of-9 from the free throw line.
Sophomore Andreas Bigum was Northwest’s fourth-leading scorer with just six points.
Laramie also got the vast majority of its scoring from three players.
Deon Edwin (24.2 points per game) dropped 30 points on 10-for-15 shooting while picking up nine rebounds and four steals. Point guard Darien Fernandez (11.2 ppg) scored 10 of his 27 points from the foul line. Deshon Portley (22.9 ppg) was a perfect 8 for-8 from the free throw line on his way to 21 points and three boards.
“Sometimes you can’t stop them, it’s how hard you make each shot,” Erickson said.
The coach praised Solarin’s defensive effort but said the team is “getting beat on penetration a lot right now.”
Four other Golden Eagles scored a total of 11 points.
The Trappers almost fell victim to a similar collapse Saturday, but did just enough to beat the Colorado Kings 81-80.
Uzonwanne hit two free throws with less than two minutes remaining to give the Trappers a three point lead. Colorado hit one final bucket to pull within one but neither team scored in the final 1:25.
Northwest’s EJ Hubbard stole the ball from the Kings with 41.4 on the clock to help ice the game.
The fast-paced Kings, sporting just seven players, lived and died by the 3-pointer. Colorado sank 11 of 25 threes and looked to score quickly in transition to keep the game close, but a cold streak from beyond the arc saw them fall behind and the Trappers led 54-37 at the half.
Erickson said he knew the Kings liked getting early shots and said his team took a while to adjust to their style.
“Real early in the game we didn’t get back (on defense),” Erickson said.
Northwest pushed the lead to 68-48 early in the second, and the Trappers’ second unit came in soon after.
“We subbed in and ... the intensity kind of went down,” Erickson said. “They started making some shots and by the time we picked it back up they couldn’t miss.”
A period of sloppy play that included a bevy of Trapper turnovers opened the door for the Kings, who began to hit their shots again. They cut the Northwest lead to 71-61 at the halfway point of the second half.
“No matter how much time’s left on that clock, you can’t let up,” Erickson said.
The Kings were never able to tie the game, but pulled within one (79-78 and 81-80) twice.
Five Trappers scored in double figures against the Kings.
Sophomore Lawrence Fejokwu had a team-high 14 points and nine rebounds and Gordon had 10 points and seven boards to lead the way for Northwest.
Uzonwanne added 10 points and five rebounds and freshman Cody McCoy hit all four of his 3-point tries for 12 points.
Solarin was 5-of-11 from the floor for 11 points in 20 minutes before coming off with a foot injury.
Erickson said the team does not yet know the extent of the injury, but is hopeful it can heal over the break.
“We’re not quite sure exactly what it is,” the coach said.
As for the rest of the Trappers, Erickson said he hopes they push basketball out of their minds for a while and enjoy their down time.
“They’re going home and hopefully enjoy a little bit of a break and I hope they come back rejuvenated with that fire ready to go,” the coach said.