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Lady Trappers Blow Big Lead But Hang On
The Northwest College women’s basketball team was cruising Tuesday night.
And then suddenly it wasn’t, and sophomore Dana Bjorhus didn’t like it.
“I was getting a little frustrated ... nobody likes for that to happen,” Bjorhus said of a 14-point halftime lead that was cut to two late in the game.
Bjorhus took out her frustrations on Rocky Mountain College’s junior varsity squad in the form of eight straight points, helping NWC survive a 28-16 RMC rally and come away with a 70-57 victory at Cabre Gym in Powell.
After battling neck-and-neck for most of the first half, NWC (4-3) managed to pull away before the break, and led 33-19 at the first buzzer.
But Rocky Mountain scored the first bucket, and the push was on.
“I think we just got a little lax on defense,” Bjorhus said of RMC’s rally. “I think us [getting comfortable with the big lead] was part of it. We tend to do that a lot in games. We get comfortable with a lead and we don’t keep up the intensity we need to have the entire game.”
Whatever the temporary issue was for the Lady Trappers, the Battlin’ Bears took advantage. Laura Wemple’s layup cut the NWC lead to nine with about 16 minutes to play, and after the Trappers’ Kealani Sagapolu sank her own layup, RMC reeled off six straight points to make it a game.
Wemple nailed another layup to cut the lead back to nine with 15:37 to go, Maggie Shane made good on a hook shot and Tarah Anderson drilled a deep jumper to pull the Bears within 39-34.
“I was disappointed with the lack of intensity on the floor,” NWC coach Janis Beal said of her team allowing RMC’s comeback. “No matter what the score is, we have to continue to play hard because at this level, you can’t give teams chances to come back.”
NWC and RMC began trading scores until the Bears staged a short move after a Sarah Nielsen free throw. Trailing 46-38, RMC went on a 9-3 spurt started by Jalyn Walker’s layup. Tatia Hollowell followed with a bucket, and after three free throws from the Trappers, Hollowell and Bailey Ward drained a jumper and a 3-pointer, respectively, to whittle NWC’s lead down to 49-47.
“They were just getting too many open looks,” Bjorhus said. “We needed to do something about it.”
Bjorhus did. Her string of eight points started during RMC’s 9-3 run. She knocked down two free throws to push NWC’s lead to seven, sank back-to- back jumpers from the exact same spot on the court to regain a six-point lead and finished her onslaught with two more free throws to push the Trapper lead back to six once more, 55-49, with 6:56 remaining. Hatti Snyder’s fast break layup made it an eight-point game and RMC never came within fewer than six the rest of the way.
“I don’t think we necessarily panicked, but I think we realized we weren’t playing our best basketball,” said Snyder, who finished with 13 points. “We just needed to pick it up and we did. We made some key shots ... some really nice shots, and we were OK.”
Bjorhus paced NWC with 14 points, and Caitlin Clancy chipped in 11. Beede led all scorers with 18 points while Wemple added 10 for RMC.
The Trappers are now enjoying a three-game winning streak following a 1-3 start to the season, and will hit the road Friday for a 5:30 p.m. contest against Salt Lake Community College at the Gillette College Tournament in Gillette. NWC will then face Snow College in the tournament at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
“Things aren't going to get any easier as the season progresses,” Beal added. “Our opponents are going to get tougher and that just means that we are going to have to continue to play better and avoid breakdowns like the one we had tonight.”