Your future, our focus
Janis Beal operated like a general with an unlimited number of troops at her command Tuesday night.
The Northwest College women’s basketball coach threw platoon after platoon at Rocky Mountain and the Trappers swarmed the short-handed visitors to pull away for a 63-46 victory.
The Rocky junior varsity had just seven players in uniform and the effect of the Trappers coming at them in waves was growing fatigue as the game went on.
“When we have a full, healthy bench of 13 players against a team that has only seven, it’s definitely an advantage,” guard Jessie Lessard said. “It was definitely a factor. It was perfect for us.”
The Lady Trappers (4-5 overall) like to pride themselves on team depth and this was a game where it really showed up. Likewise, coaches love to talk about how wins are generated from an all-around team effort. Given the vast array of contributions spread around, this was Exhibit A.
Rocky hung around for a little while. It was 12-10 Northwest after one quarter and 29-26 at the half. But a hot third quarter raised the margin to 48-36.
Twelve Trappers scored, but only two in double figures. Freshman Kira Marlow led the rally in the third and finished with a team-high 13 points.
Marlow sensed that the team was doing OK, but was short on energy, so she wanted to provide some electricity. She did, hitting a 3-pointer and making two other buckets for a timely spark.
The real display of Lady Trapper hustle showed up in the rebounding column. Northwest out-rebounded the Bears 51-28, a rare and startling margin.
“That was one of our goals,” Marlow said.
She had 7 bounds. Jessica Lohrenz led the team with 10, but seven players had at least four.
“Plus-23,” said Beal of the totals. “I’ll take that.
Dallas Petties, one of the Lady Trappers’ two six-footers, added 11 points, mostly coming in a cluster late. Julynne Silva, a 6-4 center, had five boards and they mostly came early.
Silva, one of two Lady Trappers from Brazil, along with guard Domenica Gomes, was upset by the crash of a plane in Colombia carrying a Brazilian soccer team that killed more than 70 people.
Gomes knew some of the people aboard. Before the start of the game the crowd stood for a moment of silence for the deceased.
Given superior numbers, the Lady Trappers tried to run often to wear down the visitors.
“I could see it right away,” said Northwest forward Mattie Craeger of how the Bears were tiring. “Every time we brought a new person in we kept running.”
The NWC women had not played a game in 10 days and Beal thought the layoff at first was troublesome. But not for long.
“In the first half we had to get the rust off,” she said. “Then we got some quick steals that led to easy points. The lay-ups came from defensive intensity.”