NWC News Desk

Northwest College Women Finish Preseason 7-9

Posted December 10, 2015
By Trapper Athletics

DANTE GEOFFREY Tribune Sports Editor
Courtesy of the Powell Tribune

Trappers 1-2 At College Of Southern Idaho Tournament

The preseason was hard so region wouldn’t be. 

The first part of Northwest College women’s basketball team’s plan is complete. The question of if it prepared the Trappers for Region IX play will be answered in the new year. 

The Trappers finished the preseason tournament schedule 7-9, but head coach Janis Beal said the lessons learned against some of the nation's best should set the Trappers up for success in the spring. 

“We’ve had a tough preseason. We’re not going to see better teams in our region than what we’ve seen in preseason. Salt Lake is now ranked No. 1, CSI is fifth,” Beal said. “We’ve played some good teams and hopefully our girls can understand that and not worry about the record. The only way that helps us is if we’ve learned from those experiences, playing those good teams. If we continue to make the same mistakes over and over then it wasn’t worth playing those teams.” 

Northwest went 1-2 at the College of Southern Idaho Tournament in Twin Falls, Idaho, last weekend. The Trappers opened with a 74-65 win over Chemeketa on Thursday but fell in back-to-back games to Lethbridge, 82- 68, and Lake Region State, 71-61, on Friday and Saturday. 

Sophomore Kealani Sagapolu posted double-doubles in all three games, including a 30-point, 13-rebound game in the win against Chemeketa. 

“They just didn’t have the post players to defend her,” Beal said. 

In the second half, the Trappers forced the issue more. 

“That was one thing we focused on, especially in the second half. Offensively, we made the comment, Kealani has to at least touch the ball every time down the floor,” Beal said. 

Sagapolu added 13 points and 16 rebounds Friday and 16 points and 20 boards Saturday. 

The Ogden, Utah, native helped lead a fourth-quarter charge to bring the Trappers back from a 15-point deficit to win their first game at CSI. 

“She had a big game for us,” Beal said. “She was a force during that fourth quarter.” 

Northwest turned up the defensive pressure and outscored the Storm 29-5 in the final frame to earn the nine-point win. 

“We changed defenses, we started pressing a little bit and Chemeketa struggled with that,” Beal said. “That press led us to some easy baskets on the offensive end.” 

Kennedy Netto scored 12 points and Chandler Rose added 10, and each had seven rebounds. 

Shelby Nicholson had a game-high 16 boards to help the Trappers win the battle of the boards 57-38. 

“She really did play bigger than she is,” Beal said. “With boxing out and rebounding, it’s more of an effort thing than it is a size thing.” 

Four Trappers scored in double figures, but turnovers and missed free throws cost the Trappers a second straight win against Lethbridge on Friday. 

“You miss 13 free throws and you turn the ball over 30 times, you’re going to struggle to win games,” Beal said. 

The Trappers officially committed 27 turnovers to Lethbridge’s 11, and it cost them a game in which they were outscored by just one, three, five and two points in each quarter.

“They’re a very good team, and you can’t give a team like that 30 extra possessions where we didn’t get a chance to score,” Beal said. 

Freshman Jacey Shaw led the Trappers with 19 points, followed by Sagapolu’s 13, Rose’s 12 and Aubree Porter’s 10 points. 

Northwest’s poor shooting kept them from a winning weekend against Lake Region. 

The Trappers got out to a fast start and were up by 11 after one quarter, but a 21-for-73 night from the field helped Lake Region outscore Northwest 66- 45 in the final three quarters. Northwest was just 1-for-19 from the 3-point line. 

“The problem is, it seems to be we all go cold on the same night. And we can’t have that. We’ve got to develop more consistency,” Beal said. 

Shaw had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists, Larissa Knight added 10 points while Whitney Hatch and Rose scored nine points apiece. 

Lake Region’s Kristal Flowers scored 32 points and 16 boards in the win. 

Northwest finishes its 2015 schedule with a home game against the NWC Alumni at 3 p.m. on Saturday. 

“I think we’re going to have a pretty good All-Star team,” Beal said. “Our girls have to go into it with the mindset of, whoever your opponent is, you got to come ready to play. They’re definitely good enough that, if we don’t come ready to play, they could beat us.” 

Beal said the alumni team should have at least 12 players available.