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Trappers outlast all-stars The Northwest College women’s basketball team shook off a slow start and a pesky collection of former Trapper players to tally a 78-67 win over the Northwest All-Stars on Saturday night. The win was the Trappers’ fourth of the season. “These sorts of games are tough,” said NWC head coach Janis Beal. “You can’t really prepare for them because you don’t know what to expect. You’re not sure of personnel or tendencies or anything.” Those struggles were evident early on as Northwest College was held scoreless for nearly four minutes and fell behind 9-0 on the scoreboard. After a timeout, the Trappers quickly set about the task of climbing back into the contest. By halftime, the Trappers had built a six-point lead. Minutes into the second half, the contest was knotted again at 41-41 as the all-stars again got off to a speedy start. Northwest College answered the second-half threat with a 19-2 run to go ahead 60-43 on the scoreboard. “I think a big part of that was conditioning,” said Beal. “When you have a team that’s accustomed to playing a lot of games going against a team that doesn’t play as much, you hope that conditioning will kick in at some point.” The Trappers’ coach also chalked up the run to an aggressive defense that was able to force turnovers and trigger some transition points during that stretch. In all, NWC was able to force 33 turnovers in the contest. Megan Smith had 25 points to lead the Trappers’ in scoring. Kati Oliverson added 15 points and 10 rebounds while Laura Purina finished with 12 points. “Megan played a great game. She attacked the basket and got to the free throw line for us,” said Beal. “Kati did a great job on the boards rebounding.” Despite the victory, the Trappers’ coach found cause for concern, particularly at the defensive end. Northwest College allowed their all-star opponents to shoot better than 53 percent from the floor, including a 10-for-14 performance from three-point territory. “Any time an opponent puts up numbers like that, you know you need more defensive intensity,” said Beal. “That tells me that we gave up too many open looks. We can’t be giving up those sort of numbers.” The Trappers played Saturday’s game with limited numbers. The team had only eight players in uniform for the game after suffering a spate of injuries. Jaime Zogmaister missed the contest with a back injury. Mckenzie Garrett will be out anywhere from four to eight weeks while she’s recovering from an injury sustained at the Air Force Prep tournament earlier this month and Trapper Taylor Ryan recently underwent ACL surgery, costing her the remainder of the season. Beal was also without Valerie Lesu, who accompanied the Northwest College volleyball team to national competition over the weekend. “We were definitely limited in numbers,” said Beal. The Trappers will hope to have two of those players back in uniform this weekend as the team travels to Twin Falls, Idaho, to take part in the College of Southern Idaho tournament. NWC faces the Southern Idaho All-Stars in a 2 p.m., Friday contest. The team plays the host College of Southern Idaho at 6 p.m., Saturday. CSI was ranked No. 18 in the latest NJCAA women’s basketball poll.
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