Your future, our focus
The early stages were a greyhound race. The latter stages were a painful, slow-motion march.
What began with great optimism for the Northwest College men’s basketball team last week against Casper College at Cabre Gym, ended in gloom.
The Trappers led 27-26 at halftime, yet fell 74-58.
Coach Brian Erickson kept his team in the locker room for a long lecture.
The Trappers did not recover completely, either, falling to Gillette 101-76 on the road last Saturday.
“It was a tough week,” Erickson said. “Both of those teams we played last week are in first place for a reason.”
Casper and Gillette are battling for first place in Region IX.
“I think we kind of lost focus,” Trapper guard Skyler Zabriskie said of the late going in the Casper game. “It happened right from the get-go in the second half.
“They punched us right in the mouth and we didn’t respond. We didn’t have enough fight.”
Northwest’s leading scorer was forward Sukhjot Bains with 16 points. He also gathered 7 rebounds. Center Levi Londale added 14 points.
Zabriskie was the team’s top scorer in the Gillette encounter with 15 points. Marshall McArthur scored 12 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.
Gillette built a 50-39 halftime lead and produced a similar spread in the second half of 51-37.
Blake Hinze, the freshman guard from Cody, scored 9 points against Gillette after being held to 3 versus Casper.
Jonathan Koud and Powell’s Carter Baxter each scored 8 points in the Gillette game.
The Trappers are 15-9 on the season. They were scheduled to play Sheridan College Wednesday night in Powell. A 7:30 p.m. home game Thursday is scheduled against Little Big Horn College.
“We’ve just got to get back to doing what we do well,” Erickson said, calling the Trapper defense versus Casper “probably its all-time worst.”
“We’ve got to figure something out now,” he said.
(Lew Freedman can be reached at lew@codyenterprise.com.)