Your future, our focus
Following a frustrating one-point loss to Laramie County Community College on Wednesday, the Trapper men scuffed up the Eastern Wyoming Lancers for a key conference win on Saturday. The Trappers’ record now stands at 9-9 overall and 1-1 in Region IX play.
NWC 86, EASTERN WYOMING 65
In Saturday’s game, coach Jay Collins and his NWC squad went up by double-digits, 26-16, on a Kyle Brown three at the 8:33 mark of the first half. That motivated Lancer coach Tim Moser to jab a fist in the air to call time out. However, when Brown hit a driving shot, drew a foul and canned the free throw a few minutes later, the deficit had climbed to 15 points at 35-20 Trappers.
Brown, a sophomore from New York City, led Northwest with 25 points on the night.
By halftime the Trappers led 41-24 on the strength of a Rambo Badyal 3-pointer that fell at the buzzer.
The game’s final two minutes featured a bucket by Max Dehon, with the assist to Brown, sandwiched between a pair of bookend threes from Brown.
The soft-spoken Brown, asked to comment on the obvious culture shock between remote northwest Wyoming and New York City, said the school and the people of Powell have been just the right fit.
“The town is great to come out to the games” which “a lot of people” do, he said. Naturally quiet, calm and introspective, “the type of person I am, it fits me,” Brown said.
His coach was a bit more effusive in victory.
“It’s good to bounce back,” Collins said, after Wednesday’s conference home opener against Laramie County slipped away by two frustrating points.
He called Eastern Wyoming “an anomaly” in junior college hoops for the fact the Lancers are “very post-oriented. To our credit we stepped up to the challenge.”
“The heroes,” said the coach, “were our interior guys.” They somehow held 10 Lancers — who stood between 6-foot, 4-inches all the way up to 7-footer Jonathan Hall out of Cardiff, Wales — at bay in the paint.
“We have faced adversity in various forms all year,” Collins said, including “the newness” of “getting used to me” as their coach.
“I am proud of them,” for fighting back on the heels of the disappointing loss to Laramie County, he said.
LARAMIE COUNTY 70, NWC 68
Opposite visiting Laramie County on Wednesday, enough potential tipping-point chances presented themselves right at the end to carry the day for the Trapper basketball team. But fortune did not smile on the NWC men.
Laramie County won the Region IX opener for both teams 70-68.
A parry-and-thrust first half that ended with the Golden Eagles up by a free throw, 29- 28, paced a game that featured more of the same in the final 20 minutes.
The Trappers built a lead of six, 37-31, early in the second half when a three fell for Dehon, but the Eagles rallied. With just less than five minutes to play the Trappers found themselves staring up from the bottom of a 66-58 hole — but not for long.
A pair of unanswered threes brought the Trappers within just two again, 66-64, with 3:15 to go.
The last Trapper lead was 68-66 following a Jerome Mabry bunny off an assist from Alan Swenson, who then hit his own turnaround jumper with 85 ticks left on the clock.
Then, disaster.
The Trappers fouled Laramie County’s Mateo Zovko on a leaner of a 3-point try that predictably missed but nonetheless sent Zovko to the line. The sophomore from Bosnia calmly swished all three freebies. The Trappers went from ahead two to trailing by one, 69-68, on that single play. Golden Eagle Kyle Cabs hit the front end of a one-and-one with 11.1 seconds left to account for the final score.
“We still had a [makable] three at the end to win it,” said Collins, but the Trappers’ last gasp glanced away.
“We had our chances,” Collins said. “They did a good job of keeping Kyle [Brown] and Josh [Petteno] down to 14 shots [total].” A more palatable total for the Northwest offense is at least that many apiece.
Petteno scored but six points in the game and with Brown at four, a large slice was carved from the scoring upon which Northwest typically relies.
“They uglied it up,” Collins said of the Eagles’ tactics on defense, a plan that played to their advantage.
Collins thought his squad started slow, showed low energy early and did not get enough of its own defense stops.
The Trappers were led in scoring by 16 points from Mabry, Jahquel Goss’s 13 and 12 from Dehon.
The Trappers take on Western Wyoming College at home Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m.
NWC 86, EASTERN WYOMING 65
Northwest College — Brown 25, Baydal 15, Dehon 13, Petteno 10, Mabry 9, Goss 7, Swenson 5, Axel Hohenstein 4.
Eastern Wyoming — Jonatan Arvidsson 20, Sam Tiley 10, Karl Drammeh 6, Jonathan Hall 6, Jordan Potts 6, David Hook 5, Alexander Karras 5, Carter Berrish 2.
LARAMIE COUNTY 70, NWC 68
Laramie County — Eric Oliver 17, Zovko 16, Courtney Dean 11, Cabs 8, Caleb Davis 8, Ashraf Tchadouwa 6, Washington Jr. 4.
Northwest College — Mabry 16, Goss 13, Dehon 12, Rambo Badyal 9, Petteno 6, Swenson 6, Brown 4, Mysen McArthur 2.