NWC men host Miles City in first round of region IX tournament

An uneven regular season ended with a high note that the Northwest College men’s basketball team hopes carries through the postseason.

The Trappers won back-to-back games for the first time since mid-January and will host Miles City in the first round of the Region IX Tournament at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Cabre Gym.

“It always helps when you can kind of get on a streak and get that confidence,” NWC head coach Brian Erickson said. “Last week, we had something happen internally, where we just clicked as a team. That’s the most important thing.”

Northwest won 88-79 at Central Wyoming on Feb. 17 and 92-88 at home against Sheridan on Saturday to finish at 16-13 overall (7-7 in Region IX-North) and claim the North’s fourth seed.

Erickson said the Trappers clicked at the right time. After a season-long effort to create team chemistry and offensive fluidity, the Trappers finally put together back-to-back 40-minute performances. A matter of time, according to Erickson.

“Sometimes it happens earlier than others, crazy it took as long as it did,” Erickson said. “Last week, it happened. And it showed in how we played. Hopefully it turns over to this week.”

Five Trappers scored in double figures against Central, while two reached the 20-point mark against Sheridan.

Freshman Sukhjot Bains finished with a team-high 19 points and tied for the team lead with six rebounds in the nine-point win against the Rustlers. Bains was perfect from everywhere he attempted a shot. He finished 6-for-6 from the field, including 5-for-5 from the 3-point line, and made both of his free throw attempts.

“One thing he’s been doing the second half is shooting the ball a lot better,” Erickson said. “We recruited him to be a shooter and he struggled at first. He figured out how to attack the rim, rebound the basketball. He became that multi-dimensional player. His shot’s gotten back and now he can do everything.”

Bains had 14 points and 10 rebounds against Sheridan.

Freshmen Grantham Gillard and Jordy Telfort each had 11 points and five rebounds. Freshman Levi Londole had 12 points and two rebounds, sophomore Jordon Rood scored 11 points to go with three rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Sophomore Dan Milota scored eight points and pulled down six rebounds in a game in which Milota began to look like himself again after recovering from injury for much of the season.

“You can kind of see the difference of each half. First half he got the ball in the block and wouldn’t attack, and the second half he attacked, took a couple of hook shots and made them,” Erickson said.

Gillard led all scorers with 26 points in another contest with Sheridan that wasn’t decided until the final seconds.

Sheridan took a 74-73 lead with a 3-pointer at 5:30, but two free throws by Milota put the Trappers back on top by one.

A pair of free throws by Gillard two minutes later broke another tie, but a foul the other direction let Sheridan knot things at 81-81. The Generals hit the go-ahead free throw with 2:50 on the clock, but it was waived off due to a lane violation.

Northwest took the lead for good when Gillard hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to go up 84-81. A Milota free throw followed by Bains’ offensive putback extended the lead to 87-83 with just over a minute to play.

The Generals called a timeout with 33.6 seconds to play down 88-85, but their play backfired, and helped the Trappers ice the game.

Sheridan was blocked at the rim and Bains pulled in the rebound. He passed ahead to Gillard who found a wide open Muamba for the dunk.

Sheridan hit a corner three to cut the score to 90-88 with 15.3 left, but Bains made both free throws to reestablish a two-possession lead.

Sophomore Jordon Rood finished with 20 points, four rebounds and two assists, Milota added nine points and five boards, and freshman Jordy Telfort scored seven points in the win.

“Everybody was a part of those wins last week,” Erickson said.

Win or stay home

Miles will come into town as the fifth seed, and as winners of the last contest between the two teams.

The Trappers fell 89-70 to the Pioneers on Feb. 10 in Powell, but won 82-75 on Jan. 16 in Miles City.

“I think it will be a good game,” Erickson said. “When we played them here, Dan had just gotten back and Jordy was just back. Grantham was out the week before. It was kind of our first game back and guys were relearning their roles.”

The teams certainly aren’t strangers after two regular season meetings, and both can be expected to add new wrinkles on both sides of the ball.

“It’s always a tough game, no matter what it is,” Erickson said. “You at least have a good feeling of, this is what they’re going to do, this is what worked, this is what didn’t work.”

Northwest shot just 39.7 percent from the floor in the 19-point home loss, and Erickson said the Trappers must be aggressive with Miles’ zone defense.

“We just got to attack the rim. They’re going to play zone and we need to get the ball inside and attack the paint,” Erickson said. “Biggest thing we didn’t have (in the loss) was the energy and the intensity.”

Erickson is confident the Trappers can advance past Saturday if the unselfish play of last week wasn’t a fluke, but a true commitment to playing team basketball.

Having a healthy team will help.

“You get guys like Dan back, he’s really a team guy. Just getting guys back like that, that are about the team — unselfish,” Erickson said.

The Pioneers (14-16 overall) finished the season 2-2 following their win in Cabre Gym.

Tip off is scheduled for 2 p.m., and because it is a Region IX Tournament game, admission will be charged. Tickets are $2 for students 11 and older, while adults are $3 per ticket.