Last-second 3 lifts Trappers in Salt Lake

The Trappers were facing a possible weekend sweep when Kennedy Netto found the ball in her hands on the left wing, two steps behind the 3-point line.

The Northwest College freshman didn’t hesitate as she shot the game-winning 3-pointer in the Trappers’ 71-68 win over Utah State University Eastern on Saturday in Salt Lake City.

Netto’s shot came on an audible, called by head coach Janis Beal when she saw the Trappers were facing a zone defense.

“We had a different play drawn up because they had been in man-to-man and they switched to zone,” Beal said. “So coming out of it when they went zone, we just went with one of our regular zone offenses. We kind of just got rid of the play we were going to do instead of calling a time out and trying to set something up. Just try to get them in an offense we already know and get the best shot that we could.”

The Trappers needed a basket to avoid overtime, but scoring too soon could leave the door open for USUE.

“I told them don’t look to attack the basket and score until it was under 10 seconds,” Beal said.

Jacey Shaw, Chandler Rose and Netto swung the ball around the perimeter, and almost lost possession when Netto’s attempt at an entry pass to Kealani Sagapolu was deflected by a USUE defender to Shaw at the point.

Two Golden Eagles converged on Shaw, who passed to the elbow to Sagapolu, who immediately redirected the ball out to Netto on the wing.

Netto’s shot went through with 1.3 seconds left, and the Golden Eagles called a time out to advance the ball to half court, where Northwest needed just a moment’s worth of defense to seal the victory. USUE’s desperation 3-point attempt fell wide left.

Northwest held a 66-59 lead and possession with 4:20 to play when a turnover sparked a USUE comeback. The Golden Eagles pulled within 66-63 before a Sagapolu bucket in the paint bumped the Trapper lead back to five with 2:52 to play. Northwest wouldn’t score again until Netto’s game-winner. 

A short baseline jumper and a 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:14 to go tied the game at 68-68.

Netto scored only five points in the win, and her game-winner was her only field goal of the game.

Sagapolu led the Trappers with 21 points and 22 rebounds.

“We just kept emphasizing the fact that we need to get post touches with her,” Beal said. “And she did a good job getting rebounds. I knew she had an advantage over their post players. It’s an emphasis we’ve tried to do even in other games, try to get her more post touches. Not necessarily to try to score, but they’ll start to suck in on her and it helps things out on the perimeter.”

Shaw scored 14 points and had a game-high eight assists, and Shelby Nicholson scored 10 points and had seven rebounds.

“Shelby did a real good job, got some rebounds for us, was a lot more aggressive, which was good to see,” Beal said.

The Trappers edged USUE by just three rebounds despite Sagapolu’s extraordinary effort.

“That was one thing that really hurt this last weekend,” Beal said. “We got to do a better job on the boards no matter who we’re playing. Whether it’s the worst team in the region or whether it’s Salt Lake, CSI, a ranked opponent.”

The win evened the weekend for the Trappers, who lost to host Salt Lake Community College 93-60 on Friday and are now 5-7.

“That’s one thing we’ve told them. I could care less what our record really is. Hopefully by playing these good teams, it will actually help, and we’ll start to see results from it when we get to conference play.”

Of Northwest’s seven losses, three have come against SLCC and College of Southern Idaho, which are ranked No. 1 and No. 5, respectively. Of the remaining four, only one — a 99-72 loss to Bismarck State on Nov. 6 — has been by more than seven points.

Beal hopes the challenging preseason schedule will pay dividends when the Trappers start Region IX play (Jan. 6 against Casper in Powell).

“Playing Salt Lake and CSI, and Bismarck is a very good team, hopefully that helps prepare us for region play,” Beal said. “We’re not going to see better competition than we’ve already seen. I think that mentality of understanding we’ve played against some of the best and now we just have to learn from that and transfer that over to our region games.”

Shaw was the only Trapper to score in double figures in the 33-point loss to the Bruins, who had five players score at least 10 points.

Shaw had 14 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds and five assists. Rose scored nine points and had three steals.

Northwest scored 25 points in the first half, and scored more than 15 points in just the third quarter (20). It was the fewest points scored by the Trappers in a first half since CSI held them to 16 in the season opener.

Point guard Larissa Knight made her Trapper debut against the Bruins.

Knight, a transfer who missed every game this season with a back injury scored eight points in and had an assist in 10 minutes. Knight made a 3-pointer and was 1-for-3 from the field. She made five of her six foul shots. Knight scored four points on 2-of-2 shooting in six minutes on Saturday.

“For that being her first game back, it showed how efficient she is in limited minutes,” Beal said.

Knight will continue to rehab, and is not at full strength, according to Beal.

Northwest plays at CSI’s tournament this weekend, but will not play the host team for a third time this season.

The Trappers take on Chemeketa Community College (Salem, Oregon) at 4 p.m. today (Thursday), Lethbridge College (Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada) at 4 p.m. Friday and Lake Region State (Devils Lake, North Dakota) at noon on Saturday.

Lake Region (9-2) was ranked No. 22 in the preseason polls, but did not receive votes in the poll released Wednesday.

Aside from rebounding, Beal said her team needs to focus on ball security. The Trappers committed 10 more turnovers than their opponents last weekend (39-29).

“We have too many careless turnovers where it’s us not slowing down and making the sure play,” Beal said.

Northwest returns to Powell for it’s 2015 finale against the Northwest All-Stars at 3 p.m. on Dec. 12.