Following the winter break the Northwest College men’s basketball team is ready to step back out onto the court. The Trappers play one final nonconference game on the road at Miles Community College at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Coming out of the break, coach Andy Ward said that the Trappers have been working on getting back into shape while also getting back in sync with each other before heading out on the road.

“We’re looking like you’d imagine. A long break, been working through a little soreness, working some rust off. Timing and getting their legs back and just getting back into a routine of practices but they’re working hard,” Ward said.

The Trappers headed north for the first contest of the new year with an 11-5 record, taking on the Pioneers for the second time this season. The Pioneers held a 9-8 record going in.

Despite defeating the Pioneers 88-76 in Powell in November, Ward said he knows the Trappers are going to have to be up to the challenge as Miles averages 96 points per game.

“Our defensive transition is going to be tested,” Ward said. “We’ve got to take care of the ball, so there’s no new recipe.”

Heading into the second half of the season Ward said that he felt the Trappers played well offensively before the break, but feels they need to improve on their rebounding.

“We shot it well, shot at 50% from the field. The defensive end, I think even though we’re outrebounding our opponents, we’ve got to do a better job of defensively rebounding the ball,” Ward said. “Putting the emphasis on rebounding and defensive transition, we’re just making sure we’re solid there. Because when you get into the latter half of the year and toward postseason play you’ve got to make teams play in the half court and you can’t give them second shots. If we can do that, we’ll be in good shape.”

After Miles, the Trappers return home to prepare for Region IX play which will kick off at home against Casper College Thursday, Jan. 16.

“We will do what we normally do. We’ll break down the film afterward, analyze it, look at the things we did well and find the things we didn’t do well,” Ward said. “Try to go back to the drawing board and continue to play to our strengths and stay away from our weaknesses.”