The Northwest College men’s basketball team grinded out a Region IX play-in game win at Cabre Gym on Saturday, defeating Central Wyoming 62-53 to earn a trip to Gillette for the Region IX Tournament.

NORTHWEST 62, CENTRAL WYOMING 53

Both teams came into the contest knowing it would be physical, as the Trappers (19-11) and Rustlers (9-21) had split the regular season series with each team winning at home.

Northwest started strong on both ends of the floor, setting the tone defensively while building a solid advantage up 9-4 five minutes in behind a strong start by Drew Larson.

“We came out and really set the tone defensively,” coach Andy Ward said. “They’re (Central) a physical team and they’re good defensively. They play a really controlled style. They make you guard for long periods of time, the guys were able to sustain their defensive intensity throughout long possessions. I thought that was really key for us to start the game.”

The Trappers pushed it to double digits shortly after on an Eli Patterson layup, making it a 15-4 game with 12:35 left.

Northwest maintained a double-digit advantage through the rest of the half, up 20-8 with 7:55 remaining, and up 28-17 with two minutes left.

The Trappers capped off the strong first half with a 32-19 lead at the break.

In the second half the Trappers followed much the same script, holding a 42-28 lead with 15:15 left in the game.

The double-digit advantage held for much of the second half before the visitors started making their move in the final eight minutes.

Central cut the lead to 51-42 with just under eight minutes remaining, and chipped just a little closer at 57-49 with four minutes remaining.

Northwest held off any late charge from the Rustlers, and held on for a wire-to-wire, 62-53 victory.

Larson led with 15 points, while Preston Condie, Trey Rinn and Colin Hayes each added 10.

Condie and Larson tied for the team lead with eight rebounds each, while Hayes led with five assists and two steals.

Despite poor shooting overall from beyond the arc and more turnovers, the Trappers made the difference rebounding as they dominated the boards to the tune of a 32-15 advantage.

“We shot it well overall but we turned the ball over too much, it’s a lower possession game and we still had 16 turnovers,” Ward said. “But all in all, I thought we played a pretty solid basketball game.”

POSTSEASON CONTINUES

Northwest will continue to the Region IX Tournament this week, heading to Gillette today (Thursday).

After an upset of No. 3 seed Western Wyoming, Northwest moves up to the north’s No. 3 seed and will take on Western Nebraska Community College (13-16), which is the No. 2 seed out of the Region IX South.

“They play fast, they’ll press, shoot a lot of threes and get offensive rebounds,” Ward said. “It’s going to be a lot different style than we saw against Central … We’ve got to make sure we take care of the ball so we keep them out of the open floor, because they excel in transition. We’ve got to do a good job of guarding the arc because they really have multiple threats from the arc.”

The Trappers and Cougars will match up in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m. today (Thursday), with the winner moving on to match up against the winner of Gillette College (27-3) and Otero College (13-15) at 7 p.m. on Friday in the semifinals and the loser’s season coming to an end.

NORTHWEST 62, CENTRAL WYOMING 53

Total rebounds then offensive rebounds in ()

Points — Drew Larson 15, Preston Condie 10, Trey Rinn 10, Colin Hayes 10, Tessi Thong 6, Carter Clark 4, Eli Patterson 3, Kaden Christensen 2, Ruben Bos 2

Rebounds — Preston Condie 8 (1), Drew Larson 8 (2), Trey Rinn 3, Colin Hayes 3, Carter Clark 3, Kaden Christensen 2 (1), Ruben Bos 2 (1), Tessi Thong 1, Tate Monroe 1, Eli Patterson 1 (1)

Assists — Colin Hayes 5, Tessi Thong 3, Carter Clark 2, Trey Rinn 1, Drew Larson 1, Kaden Christensen 1

Steals — Colin Hayes 2, Eli Patterson 1

Blocks — Preston Condie 1

REGION IX TOURNAMENT

All games at Gillette College

THURSDAY

Game 1 — 1 p.m. No. 2N Casper College vs. No. 3S Lamar Community College

Game 2 — 3 p.m. No. 1S Trinidad State College vs. No. 4N Laramie County Community College

Game 3 — 5 p.m. No. 2S Western Nebraska Community College vs. No. 3N Northwest

Game 4 — 7 p.m. No. 1N Gillette College vs. No. 4S Otero College

FRIDAY

Game 5 — 5 p.m. Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2

Game 6 — 7 p.m. Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4

SATURDAY

Game 7 — 3 p.m. Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6 (Championship game)