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Two Wins Pull Trappers Even at 5-5
Northwest College men’s basketball coach Jay Collins put it directly: “We needed to learn how to win outside our own locker rooms.”
Mission accomplished.
The Trappers notched a pair of victories in a Sheridan tournament over the weekend to enter the win column for the first time this season outside of Cabre Gym. The road triumphs improved the men’s record to 5-5 for the season.
Northwest broke the century mark in scoring in both tournament games against allstar teams. The 105-85 win Friday was over the Wyoming All Stars, a pretty good collection of amateur players, including some with Division 1 college experience. Snow and icy roads prevented a scheduled junior college opponent from getting to Sheridan Saturday, and a second all star team was substituted in its place in a game won by the Trappers 107-77.
TRAPPERS 108 WYOMING ALL STARS 85
“The Wyoming All Stars had a pretty good team,” said Collins. “In fact, they took Sheridan College down to the wire Saturday night. They gave us a really tough game, much closer than the final score.”
Northwest led just 53-47 at halftime of the Friday opener and didn’t pull away until late in the game.
“I think we finally wore them down in the last five to six minutes,” Collins said. “I was sweating the whole time. It was a good win for our guys.”
The Trappers got a 27-point performance from redshirt sophomore Kyle Brown to lead the way on 12 of 14 shooting from the field. He also had 13 rebounds.
“We’re going to need that,” Collins affirmed.
Sophomore Rambo Badyal chipped in with 18 points off the bench. He was 6-of-10 from the floor and 4-of-8 from the free throw line. Josh Petteno scored 14 points.
As a team, the Trappers shot 50 percent from the floor, and 32 percent from 3-point land.
“We’re a better 3-point shooting team than that,” Collins said.
The first year men’s coach also said he was a little disappointed in the way his team defended against the Wyoming All Stars.
“They only shot 33 percent from the floor, but we gave up 10 offensive rebounds. That’s too many,” Collins said.
TRAPPERS 107 ALL STARS 77
On Saturday, the Northwest men had what Collins called “a feel good day” in downing the second all-star team 107-77.
“We felt good about ourselves,” he said. “Everyone had fun, and we did what we went over there to do: get two wins.”
The Trappers had a pretty easy time of it, shooting over 60 percent from the field as a team and an even 50 percent (12 of 24) from beyond the arc.
“What I was most impressed with is no one got selfish,” Collins emphasized. “No one went out to score 20 or 30 points. It was a fun day, doing the things we do the right way and using the time to get better.”
He said his team was able to use the last 15 minutes of the game to work on its zone defense.
“We’re going to need that when we start playing Region IX games,” he said.
On a night when everyone got into the action, six players scored in double figures. Petteno led the way with 23 points, followed by Brown with 14, Jacob Schilder 13, Seth Mason and Badyal had 11 each and Jerome Mabry 10.
The Trapper men played the Rocky Mountain College JV in Billings Monday and will host Miles City and Dawson Community College at home Friday and Saturday.