{gallery}11_05_09/nwcbasketball{/gallery}Northwest College women's basketball coach Janis Beal and returning sophomore Kati Oliverson are all smiles during the second half of a 94-47 season-opening blowout of the Rocky Mountain College JV. The Trapper women recorded their highest point total in more than five years in the victory. Tribune photo by Randal HorobikTrapper women drop 94 in Beal's coaching debut Leading up to the season opener, Northwest College women's basketball coach Janis Beal clearly stated one of her goals for her first season was to get the Trappers playing a more up-tempo style of ball. Mission accomplished.The Janis Beal coaching era tipped off Tuesday night with a 94-point NWC blitzkrieg that ran the Rocky Mountain College JV right off Ken Rochlitz Court in Cabre Gym. By the time the final buzzer sounded, Beal's Trapper team had doubled up the Battlin' Bears by a 94-47 count.

“The thing that's good isn't that we scored 94 points, but that we were able to score that many points and still play defense,” said Beal. “It wasn't like we scored 94 and gave up 80-something. We were able to limit what they got at the defensive end of the floor.”

The Trappers led wire-to-wire. Northwest tallied the first five points of the contest and appeared to hit stride just before the midway point of the first half as the team pushed its lead into double figures.

Rocky Mountain was able to temporarily trim the gap back into single figures with just under five minutes to play in the first half. Another Trapper surge sent the Northwest lead soaring to 37-22 at intermission.

Little did anyone suspect, that would be the Trappers' slow half.

Northwest really pushed the pedal to the floor after halftime. The Trappers used an early 20-4 run to remove any thought of a Bears' rally and continued to cruise as the team registered 57 second-half points.

“I loved how much we played as a team tonight,” Beal said. “We were really unselfish with the basketball. The kids are good about letting us know on the sideline when they're getting tired and when they need to come out. We have a lot of players that can play lots of different positions on the floor to enable us to keep playing at that tempo.”

None of those players made a bigger impact in the season opener than Latvian freshman and four-time European championships participant Laura Purina. Purina opened her college career by netting a double-double, leading the Trappers with 22 points, 10 rebounds and four steals.

Alpine, Utah, native Megan Smith added 20 more points while Orem, Utah, freshman Megan Goodman also finished in double figures with 15 points.

In all, Northwest knocked down 38 of its 73 shot attempts for 52.1 percent shooting. The Trappers were 4-for-9 from behind the arc and successfully converted all but one of their 15 free throw attempts.

The 94 points tallied by the Trappers in the game represent the most points scored by an NWC women's team since the school rolled up 127 points on overmatched Southeast Community College back on March 6, 2004.

Defensively, Northwest relentlessly pestered Rocky into 30 turnovers. The Bears shot a downright frigid 23.1 percent from the floor.

If there was one area of fault on Tuesday night, it came on the glass, where the visitors enjoyed a 46-45 rebounding edge.

“We need to improve our rebounding,” Beal said. “We're an undersized team, so we have to outwork the other team and box out to get the basketball.”

The Trappers travel to Ephraim, Utah, on Friday night to compete in the Snow College Tournament. The Trappers also play a Saturday contest in the tournament. The next home date for Northwest comes on Nov. 21 for the NWC alumni game.

Northwest College (94) —Stevenson 6, Garrett 5, Goodman 15, Purina 22, Oliverson 8, Valentine 2, Lesu 3, Smith 20, Fisher 4, Santos 9.

Rocky Mountain JV (47) —McCloskey 5, Stuart 2, Darlington 9, Todd 10, Babor 4, Cummings 7, Brendgord 7, Adorni 3.