Your future, our focus
One thing the Northwest College women’s basketball team did after digging a hole large enough to park a Union Pacific Railroad train was create suspense.
The Lady Trappers dug themselves out minus the use of shovels, even if they did not win their game against Casper College last week at Cabre Gym.
Northwest shot 14.3 percent in the first quarter, trailed 31-14 at halftime and still pulled within three points before falling 58-53.
“If we had played in the first quarter the way we played in the fourth quarter, we would have won,” said guard Jessie Lessard, who scored a team-high 12 points. “If we had one more minute.”
The clock was the enemy as the 12-12 Lady Trappers desperately tried to wipe out a fourth-quarter, 19-point deficit.
It was 48-29 with less than two minutes gone in that quarter. The NWC rally began with a left-handed low post shot by center Julynne Silva. That kicked off a nine-point run and the Trappers kept pushing, closing within three points before running out of time.
“We couldn’t make it up,” Lessard said. “We killed ourselves in the first half. It was a tough loss. That hurt.”
The Lady Trappers shot 48.1 percent in the second half, held Casper to 29.2 percent over the last 20 minutes, but fell behind by too much.
“We didn’t figure out what we were doing at first,” Silva said. “We were rushing.”
First half versus second half?
“It was like a completely different game,” Silva said.
Charri McArthur was the only other Northwest double-figure scorer with 10 points.
The Lady Trappers did themselves no favors in a 65-52 loss to Gillette on the road last Saturday, committing 28 turnovers.
What began as a continuation of the hot fourth-quarter shooting against Casper (nailing 50 percent in the first half), turned into a slump renewal in the second half. The Trappers went a costly 8-for-33 for 24.2 percent.
Dani McManamen collected 10 points and 10 rebounds to lead Northwest.
“We’ve just got do a better job of shooting the ball,” coach Janis Beal said. “We’ve got to concentrate on shooting better. We’ve got to convert.”