Region play awaits Trapper women

Posted 12/17/15

The Trappers (7-9) finished the 2015 portion of their campaign — a tough schedule which featured three contests against top-five teams — just below .500 at 8-9, and host No. 20 Casper (10-2) at 5 p.m. on Jan. 6.

NWC head coach Janis Beal said …

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Region play awaits Trapper women

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Northwest closes 2015 with win vs. All-Stars

The Northwest College women’s basketball team can enjoy its winter break knowing that Region IX play is ready to greet it in the new year.

The Trappers (7-9) finished the 2015 portion of their campaign — a tough schedule which featured three contests against top-five teams — just below .500 at 8-9, and host No. 20 Casper (10-2) at 5 p.m. on Jan. 6.

NWC head coach Janis Beal said she thinks the break will do the Trappers well.

“Sometimes, with it being such a long season, that break is a good time to get refreshed and get away from it a little bit, and then come back and be excited and ready to start things,” Beal said.

The NWC coaching staff gave players a guideline for winter break workouts, but mainly leaves it up to the Trappers to take care of themselves.

“I think they usually do a pretty good job of coming back ready to play,” Beal said.

They’ll have to. The Thunderbirds have won five in a row and all seven of their road games to earn a national ranking after starting the season just outside the top 25. The Trappers will return from break on Dec. 29.

“That amount of time off, then to come back and be ready to play Casper, opening up region play, they have to do stuff while they’re home or that first week of Region IX play will be ugly,” Beal said.

The Trappers fended off a third-quarter comeback to notch another victory in their final game of 2014.

Northwest beat the NWC All-Stars 69-55 Saturday afternoon in Cabre Gym.

The Trappers’ 12-point lead was cut to three in the first quarter before, but pushed the advantage back up to 54-47 by the start of the fourth quarter.

Sophomore Jacey Shaw scored 14 points and sophomore Chandler Rose had 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Trappers.

Dariana Bradley (2009-11) and Leslie Thronburg (2011-13) each had 14 points and five rebounds to pace the All-Stars, a team of 10 former Northwest players.

All 10 Trappers scored and played at least 18 minutes.

Northwest led 42-30 with 6:49 left in the third quarter when the All-Stars made a 15-6 run to make it a game again.

The Trappers lost the quarter 25-16, and was the only quarter in which they were outscored. They led by two after the first, and outscored the All-Stars by double digits in the second and fourth quarters.

Cold second-half shooting by the Trappers helped the All-Stars mount a comeback. The Trappers were 6-for-14 (42.8 percent) from the 3-point line in the first half, but missed all nine of their second-half attempts. Northwest finished 37.3 percent from the field.

Northwest outrebounded the All-Stars 58-34.

Sophomores Shelby Nicholson (13 rebounds) and Kealani Sagapolu (nine rebounds) led the charge on the glass for the Trappers. Nicholson scored four points while Sagapolu had five.

Maddy Johnson finished with 11 points and four boards and Whitney Hatch scored 10 points to go with five rebounds.

Kennedy Allen (2011-13) added nine points and five boards for the All-Stars.

Neither team shot well from the free throw line. The Trappers were 7-of-14 while the All-Stars were 8-of-14.

The All-Stars shot 32.8 percent from the field.

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