Your future, our focus
Despite leading by as much as 15 in the first half and 3 with 13 seconds left in regulation, the Northwest College men’s basketball team could not hang on, losing 86-85 in overtime to Laramie County Community College Jan. 30 at Cabre Gym.
After getting the ball with 7.7. seconds left in OT, the Trappers took too long to drive down the court and an off-balance deep three by Darius Webster fell way short.
Lagio Grantsaan made a number of big plays down the stretch for the Trappers including a pair of free throws in the waning minutes of regulation, but it was not enough to save the game. He finished the night with a double-double on 50 percent shooting, netting 21 points and 13 rebounds.
Webster was also a strong contributor notching 11 rebounds, 8 points and 3 assists.
The Trappers got off to a strong start taking an 8-0 lead to start and by 13:40 pushed the lead to 15-5 with a Webster three.
From there the teams exchanged buckets before a deep Calvin Fugett Jr. shot made it 34-21.
Northwest took a 43-36 lead into the half on 52 percent shooting from the field along with 50 percent aim from three-point land.
Brian Howell led the Trappers in the first half with 12 points and Grantsaan hauled in 8 rebounds.
Going down early in the game after hitting his first two shots Kyle Brown returned in the second half and didn’t miss a beat, making a driving layup to the bucket to start the second half. Unfortunately that would be Brown’s last basket for the game.
The Trappers continued to keep the Golden Eagles at bay never letting the lead creep under 7 for the first five minutes of the new half.
But by 13:25 Laramie had cut it to 54-51. Webster then responded with a three, but with 10:00 left Northwest’s lead dwindled to 59-57.
After forcing a missed shot on the other end the Trappers resumed on offense. After three straight misses and Trapper offensive rebounds, Jason Feliz was able to haul in the fourth consecutive rebound and throw up a layup to make it 61-57.
A Laramie layup with 7:38 remaining made it 64-64 but once again the Trappers had an answer with a Grantsaan jumper.
Though the Trappers had answers so did the Golden Eagles, seemingly scoring a basket every time the momentum seemed to shift Northwest’s way.
At 3:41, Laramie took its first lead of the game to go up 72-70. Though Remy Torbert did not have his best performance of the year, the team leader made the biggest of his 12 points on a jumper with 2:25 left to go back up 75-74.
The Trappers held tough on defense and kept that score for more than 2 minutes, despite falling cold on their own offensive end.
With 30 seconds left Torbert took the ball down the court but eventually tossed up an airball after letting the shot clock run down. Graantsan then grabbed the rebound and was fouled on his way back up. He hit both free throws giving Northwest a 77-74 lead with 13.2 seconds left.
Then disaster struck.
A few quick Laramie passes found an open Tyrese Potoma who hit the tying three with 5.8 seconds left.
An open Torbert three rimmed out at the buzzer and the teams went to overtime tied 77-77.
Potoma stayed hot in OT nailing a three at 3:15 for a 82-79 lead. Then matters turned worse for Northwest when Axel Okongo got called with a moving screen. The infraction returned the Golden Eagles on offense where they pushed their lead to 84-79.
A Graantsaan layup cut the Laramie lead to three and with 33.3 seconds left the Trappers still had a chance, only trailing 86-83 with the ball.
Graantsaan hit another layup on the next possession but Northwest struggled to foul any Laramie player on the in bounds pass leaving the Golden Eagles with two free throws and an 86-85 lead with 7.7 seconds left.
Potoma missed both and Northwest got the rebound, calling a timeout to plan the final play.
Whatever plans were made in the huddle seemed to run afoul as Northwest struggled to get the ball up court to set up for Webster’s last-ditch heave.
Northwest shot 46 percent for the game but struggled from three, only hitting 25 percent of its shots.
Torbert, the team’s leading three-point shooter, was uncharacteristically cold going 0-3 from deep.
The Trapper men will look for a rebound against Eastern Wyoming College 6 p.m. Saturday at Cabre Gym.
The Northwest College women struggled on both ends of the court falling 81-59 to Laramie College in the early game Jan. 30.
Melissa Martinez led the Trappers with 14 points on 5-11 shooting and Berkley Larsen had 11.
After a few missed shots early Northwest stormed back and jumped out to an 8-7 lead with 4:48 left in the first quarter.
Turnovers and missed rebounds haunted the Trappers early and often as they fell behind 17-12. A Tayler Groll jumper with just under a minute left in the quarter brought Northwest within three entering the second.
A Karli O’Brien layup with 6:04 in the second pushed the Golden Eagles lead to 26-17 but Groll quickly responded with her third make in as many tries cutting the deficit to seven.
The Trappers held for the last possession of the first half but a Kaylee Brown three clanged off the side iron as time expired, keeping it 41-30 Laramie at the half.
Tayla Sayer, Melissa Martinez and Berkley Larsen each had 5 points a piece for Northwest in the first two quarters.
A Brown steal and dish to Martinez for three pulled Northwest within 42-38 early in the third, but that’s as close as the Trappers would get for the remainder.
Laramie responded with a three pointer and three-point play to go back up by 10 but Martinez would not lay down, hitting another three with 6:40 in the third, to bring it back to 7.
The Trappers had no answer for O’Brien though, who already collected her 17th point midway through the third and finished the game with 22.
As the Golden Eagles started to pull away Larsen hit a jumper cutting the margin to 14 with 1:00 left in the third, but once again Laramie had a quick response as Haylie Anderson hit a three on the other end.
Laramie took a 62-45 lead into the fourth.
In the game’s final frame the Trappers fell behind by as much as 28 but threes from Martinez and Brown, plus a steal and score fast break from Juliana Ribeiro showed Northwest still had some fight, cutting it to 79-59 with 1:00 left.
The Trappers shot 29 percent for the game and 25 percent from three while Laramie was a scorching hot 45 percent in both categories.
Sayer didn’t score in the second half but finished with 9 rebounds and 3 assists.
Northwest will hold home court with a face off against Eastern Wyoming 4 p.m. Saturday at Cabre Gym.