Your future, our focus
Sitting on a 26-4 record with a No. 15 national ranking, the Northwest Trapper men’s basketball team is on the verge of compiling an historic season.
A sweep of Central Wyoming, 91-84, and Western Wyoming, 84-77, last week clinched the Region IX regular-season championship, guaranteed the Trappers a home league post-season game Saturday afternoon against Little Big Horn, and positioned Northwest to host the league playoffs March 5-7 for the first time.
Northwest already has recorded the second-best record in school history with an explosive squad that has won 13 games in a row and not lost since Jan. 9.
Last week the Trappers were ranked 15th in the National Junior College Athletic Association poll and have added two victories since.
Led by 6-foot-10 Chris Boucher, who is being recruited by dozens of NCAA Division I schools, and 6-3 guard William “Nicky” Desilien, who has quicker feet than a tap dancer, the Trappers have overwhelmed opponents. They have 10 times scored more than 100 points in a game and 12 other times topped 90.
Boucher, like Desilien, is a sophomore from Quebec, Canada. He has a skinny, Manute Bol-like build, and the skill to dominate in the paint as well as shoot from outside. Boucher is averaging about 22 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks per game. In one game he scored 31 points, grabbed 18 rebounds, and blocked 10 shots, demonstrating why major colleges from Minnesota to Texas have him on their radar screens.
“At the beginning of the season we were wondering, ‘Where are we going?’” Boucher said. “At the beginning of the season coach told us we were going to be good. Now, it’s coming true.”
Brian Erickson, in his third season as head coach after three seasons as an assistant, said the players are enjoyable to be around.
“This team has really bonded,” he said.
Northwest began playing basketball for the 1946-47 season. The finest team in school history was the 1966-67 club that finished 32-4 and placed fourth in the NJCAA tournament in Hutchinson, Kan. Only one other team in school history has won as many as 26 games. The 1968-69 squad finished 26-9.
This team’s success has been something of a surprise.
Desilien, who is averaging about 23 points a game, said the Trappers needed court time together to become an outstanding team.
“When we got to know each other it jelled,” he said.
A win over Little Big Horn of Crow Agency, Mont., will give Northwest the host role against seven other Region IX teams the first week in March. The winner of that tournament advances to nationals in Hutchinson.