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Kyle Brown exhausted the defense and the scorekeepers last Saturday when he put up a Northwest College school-record 52 points against Casper College.
The Trappers lost to the nationally ranked Thunderbirds in Region IX play 110-90, but no one was blaming Brown for Northwest dropping to 9-13.
It was the ultimate do-everything scoring game in team history. Brown, a 6-foot-2 guard from New York, hit 19-of-32 shots, made five three-pointers, and sank 9 of his 10 free-throw attempts.
“I was feeling it,” Brown said of his explosive night. “In the first half I only had 14 points.”
Casper, 18-3, built a dominating 61-29 halftime lead at Cabre Gym.
“We decided we were not going to give up,” Brown said.
The Trappers did turn things around with a 61-49 second-half, but could not come all of the way back.
Josh Petteno scored 17 points on a day when Northwest had some players ill. But it really was Brown’s show. He was being fed the ball often.
“He was the only one scoring,” coach Jay Collins said. “He got hot in the second half especially.”
Collins, who has played a lot of basketball, seen it played everywhere, and coached at different levels, said, “I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’ve never been part of a 50-point game. That’s a number, even in senior league.”
Former basketball coach and now-athletic director Brian Erickson, who recruited Brown to Powell, said his research of past teams and statistics indicates Brown’s performance is a school record in a program that dates back to 1946.
“That would be a good accomplishment,” Brown said.
The explosion on Saturday also gave Brown a season scoring average of 26.8 points per game, leaving him ranked second in the nation on the National Junior College Athletic Association list.
Also last week, the Trappers lost, 91-79, to Central Wyoming. Brown had 34 points in that game.
Northwest has lost four out of five, but three of those defeats came to nationally ranked teams.
“We’re not playing bad,” Collins said. “We’re playing the 12th-ranked team in the country, the 14th-ranked team and the 18th-ranked team.”
The Northwest women split two games last week. After defeating Western Wyoming 58-56 and losing to Casper 81-56, the Lady Trappers are 11-11.
Against Western, forward Adela Smutna had 22 points and point guard Samiyah Worrell, 16.
The same players each had 15 points versus Casper.