Trapper men now 8-0 after weekend sweep

The Northwest College men’s basketball team continued its fiery start to the season with a trio of wins last week, including a sweep of Williston State College and Montana-Western at the First Bank of Wyoming Shootout over the weekend. The Trappers, who received votes in last week’s NJCAA basketball poll, are now 8-0 on the season.

“It’s always good to get wins,” said Trapper head coach Andy Ward, whose team added three more blowout wins to the ledger. “We need to focus on fixing some of the things we can fix, though. We’ve done a lot of good things, but we’ve also seen areas that we can correct and get better. Now is the time to work and fix those things.”

The Trappers were never seriously threatened over the weekend. After enduring some nervous moments against Williston State College when the two schools met earlier this year in North Dakota, the Trappers had no such difficulty this time around.

Northwest College scored 24 of the first 29 points of the contest to open a significant lead before the game was eight minutes old. The Tetons struggled throughout the contest to sustain any sort of momentum and the Trappers’ lead was never seriously challenged in the 102-61 victory.

All but one of the players in uniform for NWC found the scoring column, including four who reached double figures. Chris Hansen led the way with 22 points. Jeffrey Solarin and Diego Pasos each added a dozen, while Konner Frey tossed down 11 points.

Junior Coleman and Pietro de Andrade each narrowly missed the double figure party, finishing with nine points apiece.

The Trappers were simply on fire in the contest. For the game, the team knocked down better than 63 percent of its shots from the floor. From behind the 3-point arc, the team was even more lethal, connecting on 13 of its 19 attempts for better than 68 percent. The Trappers even hit on 81 percent of their foul shots in the game.

Solarin had team highs of six rebounds, four assists and two steals for Northwest.

The Trappers got off to a slower start on Saturday against Montana-Western, but still led 45-32 at the half.

“We weren’t doing as good a job defending,” Ward said of the difference from Friday to Saturday night. “We were allowing too much dribble penetration and when we had to sag to help, they were able to kick it out and shoot the 3 on us. They’ve got pretty good shooters.”

Indeed, Montana-Western knocked down 13 shots from behind the arc in the game, including seven in the first half to help the team stay close. In the second half, that accuracy deserted the team early, enabling the Trappers to push their lead to nearly 30 points before a late 3-point flurry pulled the final margin to 19, 91-72.

Coleman finished with 17 points and four assists for Northwest. Solarin added another double-double to his young collegiate career with 16 points and 14 boards as Northwest dominated the glass by a 46-27 margin. Hansen had 13 points as, again, the Trappers received scoring from all but one player on the roster.

Northwest College also played in Billings against the Rocky Mountain JV squad last week, posting a 93-57 victory. No stats were taken during that game by the host school and Ward had not had an opportunity to compile stats from the game film as of press time Monday.

The Trappers travel to Sheridan this Friday and Saturday to take part in the Lions Club Tournament at Sheridan College. The Trappers open with the Rocky Mountain JV on Friday, then face Little Big Horn College on Saturday. It will mark the third time this season the Trappers have faced the Rocky Mountain College JV.

Northwest will play four games the following week, appearing at the Snow College tournamnet as well as the Western Nebraska tournament.

Northwest 93,

Rocky Mountain JV 57

Scoring not available.

Northwest 102, Williston 62

Zach Stanley 5, Italo de Oliveria 3, Diego Pasos 12, Hudson Filho 2, Ty Ackelson 6, Guilherme Carabagiale 5, Jeffrey Solarin 12, Pietro de Andrade 9, Devin Gonsalez 1, Junior Coleman 9, Konner Frey 11, Chris Hansen 22, Jonathan Wakelin 5.

Northwest 91,

Montana-Western 72

Jeffrey Solarin 16, Junior Coleman 17, Konner Frey 6, Chris Hansen 13, Diego Pasos 4, Ty Ackelson 8, Guilherme Carabagiale 8, Zach Stanley 4, Italo de Oliveria 2, Pietro de Andrade 4, Devin Gonsalez 2, Hudson Filho 4, Jeremy Beehler 3.