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Second Half Lifts Team Past Lamar
The Northwest College Trappers rode a 33-point night from sophomore Junior Coleman to their first Region IX tournament victory in three seasons, winning 90-83 over Lamar in Sunday night’s opening round. The Trappers were in action Monday night in the quarterfinals against tournament host Casper, a team they split with during the regular season.
Coleman scored 18 of his 33 points in the second half, including eight consecutive points during a key late-game stretch that helped squelch a Lamar rally. Jeffrey Solarin added four points in the final two minutes as the Trappers stretched the final margin to seven points.
After slipping behind early in the first half and trailing by as many as six points, Northwest caught up to Lamar just before the midway point of the first half and took the lead for good with just over five minutes to play in the half. Despite that, the Trappers’ lead was just 40-38 at intermission.
After an early exchange of baskets, the Trappers embarked on a 7-0 run to open a 49-40 lead at the 16:23 mark. Lamar battled back thanks to its proficiency from behind the 3-point arc — the South division school knocked down 12 treys in the contest — to climb within 55-53.
That flurry by Lamar triggered another Trapper run. Northwest outscored Lamar 16-7 over the next five minutes to open a 71-60 lead with 9:19 remaining. For a moment, it appeared the Trappers had things well under control.
Unfortunately, Pietro de Andrade’s shot from the paint which staked Northwest to its double-digit lead marked the end of the Trappers’ hot streak. Lamar held Northwest to just one basket — another lane shot by de Andrade — over the next five minutes. During that time, Lamar chopped the deficit to a single point, 73-72.
That’s when Coleman took over. The two-year starter for the Trappers knocked down a shot with 4:08 to play to begin the scoring thaw for Northwest. Moments later, he knocked down a 3-pointer. After that bucket was promptly answered by Lamar at the opposite end of the floor, Coleman stepped up to bury another long-distance shot to give the Trappers an 81-77 advantage.
Lamar never got closer than three points the rest of the way. Jeffrey Solarin added four points in the closing two minutes to help Northwest preserve its first opening round Region IX tournament victory since 2010.
In addition to Coleman’s big evening, the Trappers had three other players reach double figures scoring. Solarin added 13 points and eight rebounds. Guilherme Carabagiale added 12 points and de Andrade ended his night with a double-double, chalking up 11 points and 10 rebounds.
For the game, Northwest knocked down 59.6 percent of its shots from the floor. Lamar was actually able to attempt 15 more shots than Northwest in the contest, but suffered from 43 percent shooting from the floor. Lamar also hurt itself by being able to connect on just nine of its 20 free throw attempts in the game.
Malcom Brooks finished with 35 points for Lamar to upstage Coleman by a basket. Brooks was 6-for-11 from downtown in the game.
The Trappers advanced to take on Casper College, an 81-69 winner over Western Nebraska on Saturday. That contest between Region IX North opponents was played Monday night.
Other Monday quarterfinal games saw Otero and Central Wyoming facing off on the Trappers’ half of the bracket. Northeastern, a first round upset winner over Sheridan, met Laramie County and North Platte and Gillette squared off in the other quarterfinal games.
Winners of those four games will meet in tonight’s (Tuesday’s) semifinals. The Region IX men’s championship game will take place Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Casper College.