Heading down to Windsor, Colorado, is a difficult trip to make as the first competition of the season, but the Trapper men’s basketball team was able to come away with a 3-2 record.

NWC’s preseason weekend started with a loss to Snow College on Friday. Coach Jay Collins felt his team may have come out a little too fast.

“I think we were so excited to play somebody else that we forgot what we had been working on this last month,” Collins said.

However, the Trappers followed that loss to Snow with three straight victories over Labette Community College, Sunrise Christian Academy and Williston State Community College.

In their final game of the weekend, the Trappers fell into an early deficit against Cloud County Community College, but almost rallied back to win, falling just short of a 4-1 record.

With it being the season’s first batch of games, Collins felt there were some things his team could work on.

“Our execution this weekend offensively was not great,” Collins said. “I think we missed open shots that we need to make.”

Collins said he was able to experiment with the team’s depth as well as different lineups as he attempts to figure out lineups heading into the regular season in three weeks.

Collins said Gabe Gutierrez, an NWC freshman from Eagle Mountain, Utah, had an impressive weekend.

“He proved why he is the toughest one on our team,” Collins said.

The Trappers were able to set up a weekend of preseason scrimmages this Saturday, as they will kick off the weekend with a game against Montana Western at 8 a.m. and have a second game against Rocky Mountain College at 11:45 a.m.

Between those two games, Western Wyoming Community College will face the same two opponents.

Collins and Northwest Athletic Director Brian Erickson said the scrimmages will be open to the public.

“I think we proved that we have the chance to be good,” Collins said. “I think our biggest strength right now is our ability to get better as a team.”