Your future, our focus
Skyler Zabriskie isn’t sure how good the Northwest College men’s basketball team’s Christmas break will be for him.
He has been on such a hot shooting roll lately he doesn’t want to tamper with the karma.
Zabriskie, a 6-foot-1 sophomore guard from Provo, Utah, pumped in 12 points last Saturday to help the Trappers defeat the Big Horn Basin All-Stars 97-54 at Cabre Gym.
All dozen points came on four 3-point shots (in five attempts).
As Northwest players scattered for the holidays before resuming their schedule Jan. 7 against Dawson Community College, Zabriskie hoped he had the answer to maintaining his sizzling tendencies.
“I can’t lose it,” he said. “I’ll go home, say hello to the family and go straight to the gym.”
After the dominating victory the Trappers stand at 11-4. That win, however, came two days after the team’s 10-game winning streak ended against visiting North Idaho; always a formidable foe.
The Trappers fell 87-86 in the closing seconds to the Cardinals.
Northwest guard Jonathan Koud kept hitting big shots near the end, but North Idaho kept coming back, chiefly due to Sam Dowd, who scored 24 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and passed off for 6 assists against the Trappers. Dowd hit a 15-foot jumper for the winning basket.
The game marked the return to the lineup of 6-6 star forward Sukhjot Bains, sidelined with a toe injury for six games. He poured in 22 points and collected 8 rebounds for Northwest and was just glad to play.
“It felt like a long time,” Bains said. “I’m pretty much 100 percent.”
The Trappers had four other players in double figures against North Idaho; Zabriski (14), Koud (12), Levi Londale (12, plus 11 boards) and Devonte Morgan (10).
Morgan, a 6-1 freshman guard from Phoenix, provided considerable entertainment against the All-Stars.
He scored a team-high 16 points on slashing drives and medium range teardrop floaters that cleared the long arms of defenders.
Morgan said he likes this Trapper team going into Region IX play in January.
“We’re a really good team,” he said. “People underestimate us. We’ve improved so much already. We’re playing team basketball and all of our shooters are shooting well.”
The All-Stars roster featured mostly players from the immediate area. One sub-plot was Cody grad Brandon Hinze going head-to-head against younger brother Blake Hinze, a current Northwest starting guard.
Blake covered Brandon in the Trappers’ one-on-one defense. Hitting five 3-pointers Brandon scored a game-high 23 points.
At times the brothers talked and smiled at one another, a little mid-game bragging.
Brandon, a junior at Wyoming, admitted he was wheezing on occasion.
“I just came off the couch,” he said.
When it was suggested there might be trash talking over Christmas dinner, Blake said, “It starts now.” They were riding in the same car from Powell to Cody.
Morgan and Zabriskie led point-getters, but all 14 Trappers scored, including some who do not get much playing time. Also, Bains grabbed 16 rebounds.
Tanner Coleman from Deaver scored 6, Stephen Parker from Powell 5 and Joey Jewell from Cowley 2.
Coleman, who said he might go coyote and bird hunting during his vacation, said work ethic is why the Trappers have won so often during the first half of the season.
“We definitely out-work the other teams,” he said.
(Lew Freedman can be reached at lew@codyenterprise.com.)