Your future, our focus
The same Northwest College men’s basketball team that only recently up-ended Gillette’s unbeaten season and clawed to a tight finish against nationally ranked Sheridan, stumbled to defeat against Central Wyoming last week.
That 89-68 loss at Riverton left Trapper coach Brian Erickson puzzled and a bit irritated.
Aggravating him more was the cancellation of Little Big Horn’s scheduled visit to Cabre Gym last Saturday, giving the Trappers an unneeded and unwanted bye. Injuries and academic woes decimated the Rams’ roster.
Northwest sits at 12-13 and Erickson is trying to figure out why the record is not considerably better.
“We’re on a roller-coaster,” he said. “I’m still dumbfounded. We’re just up and down.”
The Trappers were mostly down against Central. They were within seven points at halftime, but were pretty much blown out in the second half.
Being on the wrong side of 25-10 in fouls at one juncture did not help, but Erickson would consider that a lame excuse for not playing better.
“I feel like we figure it out and then a new little thing comes up,” Erickson said. “We didn’t fight through adversity.”
Guard Reme Torbert led the Trappers with 22 points against Central, followed by forward Luc Lombardy and guard Blake Hinze, with 12 points each.
“We have had a hard time putting together a 40-minute game,” said guard Jordan Banks of Big Piney.
Banks thinks the Trappers are taking some teams for granted after they beat Gillette.
“A lot of it is our mindset,” he said. “We think we don’t have to worry about everybody.”
Erickson believes in the team’s talent and said the players are nice guys, but are not always digging down hard.
Guard Jace Johnson said the Trappers lost to Central because, “They out-hustled us. We struggle to play up to our talent. We’ve got to pick it up on defense. We’ve got to be more consistent.”
Northwest travels to Miles City Wednesday and Saturday hosts Casper in the season’s last home game.