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Kyle Brown Free throws Ice 90-86 Win
Max Dehon didn’t exactly fill up the stat sheet, but a couple marks on his line were huge for Northwest College Sunday afternoon in a tense 90- 86 Trapper win over Williston State College at Cabre Gym.
Dehon, a 6-foot, 5-inch, sophomore from Brussels, Belgium, hit a 3-point shot with 2:37 to play to pull Northwest in front, 85-83, and the Trappers held off Williston down the stretch to even their record at 8-8 heading into conference play. It was Dehon’s only 3-pointer on three tries in a game in which he scored just five points.
That’s not all: Dehon had only one offensive rebound in the game, but it couldn’t have come at a more crucial moment. With his team clinging to an 85 84 lead, Dehon rebounded a missed NWC shot and fed Josh Petteno, whose 3-pointer at the 1:16 mark upped the Trapper lead to 88-84.
Williston got within two at 88-86 — and had the ball point blank with 6.5 seconds left — but turned it over on a doubledribble by Jordan Kellier.
The Trappers inbounded the ball to Kyle Brown, and he was immediately fouled. Brown, a redshirt sophomore from New York, stepped to the line with 5 seconds on the clock and swished both free throws for the winning four-point margin.
“We wanted to get the ball into his [Brown’s] or Josh [Petteno]’s hands,” said NWC coach Jay Collins. “Kyle [Brown] hit them. His free throws were big.”
The Trapper win reversed a 109-76 loss to the Tetons when the two teams met in the season opener at Williston, North Dakota, in November.
Petteno, a freshman from Venice, Italy, had a stand-out night for Northwest. He scored 32 points on 10 of 17 shooting and was 9 of 15 for 60 percent from 3-point land.
At one point in the first half, he knocked down 3-point shots on four successive possessions. Petteno’s first trey broke a 28-28 tie, and his 12-point spurt drew NWC ahead, 40-32. The Trappers led 48-39 at intermission.
Brown contributed 22 points to the Trapper cause, 16 in the second half. He was seven of eight from the free throw line to pace a team performance of 15 of 18 for 83 percent.
Williston kept it close in the second half, finally taking a 65-64 lead on Kobey Lam’s 3-pointer with 11:34 to play. From that point, the score was tied five times. There were nine lead changes until Dehon’s go-ahead 3-pointer put Northwest in front to stay.
The Trappers, still playing without injured 6-foot, 8-inch sophomore Seth Mason, were badly outsized by the North Dakota team. Williston controlled the boards, grabbing 38 rebounds to 28 for NWC.
The leading rebounder in the game, however, was NWC’s Jerome Mabry. The freshman from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had 17 of his team’s 28 rebounds.
Collins heaped praise on Mabry’s work on the boards.
“He’s only 6-3 or 6-4, but he’s strong; he times it right. That’s a pretty good effort: 17 rebounds and 10 points,” Collins said.
The fourth Trapper to score in double figures was freshman Alan Swenson from Brussels, Belgium, with 12 points. Not known for his scoring, he hit three of five 3-point attempts and three of five free throws.
Still, it was Swenson’s floor play that Collins raved about.
“He had 11 assists and no turnovers. He makes us go,” Collins said of Swenson. “He’s a true point guard.”
Northwest shot 46 percent from the field (30 of 66) and hit 46 percent of its 3-point shots (15 of 33). The Trappers committed only eight turnovers in the game.
Williston was 33 of 61 from the field for 54 percent and hit 10 of 21 3-point attempts for 48 percent.
The Trapper men open conference play at Cabre Gym Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., hosting Laramie County Community College from Cheyenne.
TRAPPERS 90, WILLISTON 86
NWC — Petteno 32 points, Brown 22, Swenson 12, Mabry 10, Dehon 5, Jahquel Goss 5, Ron Fell 2, Axel Hohenstein 2. Williston — Eden Holt 26, Kobey Lam 23, Jordan Kellier 11, Shae Linton-Brown 11, Nathaniel Powell 11, Jonathan Komagum 4.