Your future, our focus
Beat Bismarck State, Game Gear At Home
After falling into an 0-3 hole to start the season, the Trapper basketball team dug itself right back out last week, winning three straight home games to even its record at 3-3.
Following a Wednesday, Nov. 13 win over the Rocky Mountain College JV, the Northwest College men beat Bismarck State on Friday and the Game Gear All- Star team on Saturday.
“It was just one of those things where I think our guys have been really, really working hard and needed to see the ball go through the hoop — and needed to see us on the right side of the scoreboard,” said NWC head coach Jay Collins. “So I think it was a good week for us.”
TRAPPERS 104 BISMARCK STATE 84
NWC led by nine points early in its opening game of the Big Horn Federal Shootout, but the Mystics rallied; the Trappers found themselves down 46-41 at halftime.
Collins felt his team had executed pretty well in the opening period, but got badly out-rebounded amid a “foul fest.”
“We weren’t playing our pace at the end of the first half,” he said.
But the NWC men turned it around in the second half.
“Everyone in that locker room was confident and knew that if we came out [and] did what we needed to do, that we’d get out with a win,” Collins said.
A trio of 3-pointers from Josh Petteno early on helped put the Trappers back on top; the last of those treys gave NWC a 57-54 lead it never surrendered.
The home team went on to build up its lead and win 104-84.
After struggling to find the net in the first half, the Trappers shot a sizzling 58 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes. They outscored Bismarck State 63-38.
“I think our pace and our energy kind of got to them and we ended up getting some really good looks,” Collins said, adding that “it was a good half.”
While calling the barrage a team effort, Collins praised the leadership of point guard Alan Swenson, who picked up eight points and rebounds.
“He guarded 94 feet and he was pushing the ball with the speed that we need him to do that and I think he got guys open shots,” Collins said.
He said Swenson, a freshman from Brussels, Belgium, has been “a really nice surprise.”
“I haven’t coached too many people with a better motor than Alan,” Collins said. “He just, he leads us from both ends.”
Trapper sophomore Kyle Brown dropped 23 points to lead all scorers, bolstered by a perfect 10-for-10 performance from the free throw line.
Seth Mason (16 points), Petteno (14) and Jerome Mabry (11) joined Brown in double digits.
Mabry and Swenson each grabbed eight boards to lead NWC. Lovell’s Mysen McArthur scored four points and grabbed a rebound in a couple minutes of playing time.
TRAPPERS 91 GAME GEAR 76
The Game Gear All-Stars couldn’t keep up with the Trapper men, who never trailed on Saturday. NWC led 50-27 at the half and built that advantage to as many as 32 points before Game Gear closed the gap in the final minutes.
Game Gear had no answer for Petteno. He opened the scoring with a 3-pointer and went on to sink six more, breaking out for 34 points. At halftime, Petteno had 26 points — just one less than the entire Game Gear squad.
“He can do that,” Collins said of Petteno, a freshman from Venice, Italy. “He can really, really shoot and he can really get going, and our guys did an excellent job of getting him open and looking for him and he knocked it down.”
“I think he’s just now realizing how good he really is — and how much we’re going to need him to do things like that,” Collins said, also praising Petteno’s defensive work.
Rambo Badyal added another 16 points for the Trappers off the bench, with Brown scoring 11. Mabry had a team-best 10 rebounds while Swenson dished off eight assists.
While matchups with All-Star teams are different, coach Collins said he was pleased how hard his squad played throughout the game.
“It’s one of those things where it’s more about [saying] we’ve got to focus on what we do and play at the level we need to play at — and we were able to do that,” he said.
Game Gear got 18 points from former Trapper Spencer Trask. Meanwhile, current NWC Athletic Director Brian Erickson scored one point and grabbed two rebounds and two assists in limited minutes.
The Trappers will head to Colorado Springs this weekend, playing Trinidad State Junior College at 5 p.m. Friday and Air Force Prep at 2 p.m. Saturday.