Generals find all the answers in 83-76 winSheridan College shook off multiple challenges from host Northwest College on Tuesday night to score an important 83-76 win in the meeting of Region IX North sub-region opponents. The Trappers slide to 7-11 on the year following the loss. While Sheridan was able to escape town with the win, it wasn't without a struggle. On multiple occasions, the Trappers appeared poised to question the Sheridan's leadership on the scoreboard. Each time, Sheridan found the answer it needed.

“I'm proud with the effort we showed tonight,” said Northwest coach Janis Beal. “It was a tough game to lose, but the kids played hard. I thought we were really into it tonight.”

After watching Sheridan transform a one-point halftime lead into a five-point advantage, Northwest fought back to tie the game.

Sheridan answered by surging out to a seven-point lead, only to watch the Trappers get to within three.

Later in the half, it was an eight-point Generals' lead that vanished in the span of just 90 seconds as Northwest College took a rare second-half lead on a bucket by Laura Purina with 6:32 remaining. Minutes later, Sheridan was off and running on an 8-0 run for which the Trappers could find no reply.

“Give Sheridan credit because they made their free throws down the stretch when they needed to,” said Beal. “We didn't shoot as well from the line as we normally do, and that made some of the difference.”

For the contest, Sheridan enjoyed more than double the number of free throw opportunities that the Trappers had. The Generals shot 25-for-35 at the charity stripe, compared to a 10-for-17 showing by Northwest.

Sheridan began the game hot from the floor, jumping out to a 14-9 lead before Northwest began to make its presence felt in the open floor. Using a swarming defense, the Trappers took their first lead of the game shortly after the 12-minute mark of the first half and built their advantage as high as 27-22 by out-hustling Sheridan down the floor on repeated occasions to score in transition.

The Generals were eventually able to adjust. Sheridan regained the lead with less than three minutes to play in the first half and carried a 42-41 edge into the locker room, but appeared uncomfortable with the pace at which the game was being conducted.

“In the first half, the pace of the game was more to our favor,” said Beal. “And a lot of that came from our work on defense, getting steals and getting stops. In the second half, we weren't able to get as many, so we weren't able to match that pace, and I think that favored Sheridan.”

Megan Smith enjoyed another stellar night for the Trappers, finishing with 23 points. Sharla Stevenson (16 points) and Kati Oliverson (12 points) also reached double figures.

Sheridan's Gabrielle Clayton paced all scorers with 25 points. Teammate Mandy Mullock added 11 points and a whopping 20 rebounds for the Generals.

The loss slides Northwest to 1-2 in sub-region play. The team hosts Dawson in another sub-region game this Friday.

“Dawson has a new head coach and they're in a bit of a rebuilding phase,” Beal said of the team's upcoming foe. “The most important thing for us is to take care of how we play and not worry so much about what our opponent is going to do. That means going back, watching game film, and adjusting the little things so that we continue to get better.”