After a rough 0-3 start on the road to start their 2019-20 campaign, the Northwest College men’s basketball team stormed into the win column in a big way on Wednesday, dominating Rocky Mountain JV 109-65 in their home opener at Cabre Gym.

“We needed that,” said NWC head coach Jay Collins. “I think our defensive intensity was good — one of our goals was to really limit their transition opportunities. We wanted to keep them under 10 points in transition, so we accomplished our goal there.”

The Trappers went on a 13-4 run to start the game and never looked back, taking a 52-37 lead into the half. NWC made Rocky play against their half-court defense, and scored often in transition.

The second half was all NWC, with the Trappers continuing to press on defense and create buckets in transition. Collins also got good play from his bench: Eric Jackson and Rambo Badyal each finished in double figures, outscoring the Battlin’ Bears 57-28 en route to a 109-65 win.

“Everyone got to play, and that’s always good when that happens,” Collins said, adding that, “Even in a tight game we tend to play 10 or 11 guys anyway. Everyone kind of got a piece of the action.”

The Trappers had five players finish in double figures, led by Kyle Brown with 22.

“Kyle is scoring the ball very efficiently,” Collins said. “He’s a picky scorer — he’s kind of sneaky in how he gets things done. You don’t realize he has that many points until you look at the box score.”

Seth Mason finished with 19 points to go along with seven rebounds, while Josh Petteno chipped in 16 points. Jackson and Badyal finished with 15 points and 10 points, respectively.

“A guy like Eric Jackson comes off the bench and scores 15 points in 11 minutes, you like to see that with your bench,” Collins said. “He had a good game. He came in aggressive, and things were clicking for him.”

Alan Swenson led the team in assists with six, followed by five from Petteno; Swenson also led the team in steals with four.

“It was definitely a feel-good win,” Collins said. “Alan [Swenson] controlled the game from the point at both ends. It was good to see him continue to play well for us. He’s not a guy you want guarding you — he’s fast, he’s annoying, he’s got a little of that [Los Angeles Clippers] Patrick Beverly to him. He’s in your grill all the time. He’s been a blessing for sure.”

The Trappers continued to play a full-court defense well into the second half. Collins said his team had yet to win a game at that point, and he wasn’t taking any chances.

“When there’s still seven minutes to play, I’ve been around junior college basketball long enough to know crazy things can happen,” he said. “I was a part of a game where we were down 25 with three minutes to go, and we won. I like to make sure.”