Badger Basketball team now 2-2, beats Colorado, lose to Southern Idaho
By Jacob Clawson
Staff writer
1-23-2020
The Snow College men’s basketball team moved to 2-2 in the Scenic West Athletic Conference after beating Colorado Northwestern, 103-86, but the Badgers then fell short to Southern Idaho, 59-65.
Against Colorado Northwestern, the Badgers claimed the advantage early in the first half. Snow cruised into halftime leading by 21 points, 56-35. The Badgers, only barely, outscored Colorado in the second half though, allowing them to make up a few last minute points to end the game 103-86, giving Snow their second win of the conference.
Freshman guard Matt Norman was clearly the MVP of the game leading the Badgers in points scored. Norman was able to place a whopping 30 points on the board after shooting 11-of-18 from the field and dropping five 3-pointers.
Five other Badgers also scored double digits against this Colorado defense. Tredyn Christansen scored 17 of his own, while continuing to lead the team in rebounds, but also made 3 steals on Thursday as well. Brantzen Blackner and Jonah Roth both pulled off 14 points of their own, with Brayden Johnson following close behind with 12 points.
Saturday’s game against Southern Idaho was a completely different look for the Badgers, with Brayden Johnson and Trey Farrer leading Snow’s offense, while Norman struggled to get 2 points the whole game.
Being narrowly outscored in both halves, the badgers slowly fell behind Southern Idaho, ending the game 59-65, once again tying up the Badgers record for the season and conference play.
In an interview with Coach Robert Neilson after Snow’s loss against Salt Lake Community College, he responded how the team will take on Colorado and Idaho on the road.
“It’ll be a new experience for these guys to be on the road in the region,” he said. “It should be another eye opening experience for some of these guys, so it’ll be good… I told the team before the game, we’re still the conference champions. Nobody has knocked us off yet, so we’re still the champions until someone beats us. We just gotta be able to learn from these things and play the next game.”
With still the challenge of finding players who are willing to step up and take on leadership positions, Snow finds themselves in a predicament that needs to be addressed if they wish to defend their title as conference champions. Even though the Badgers are only 2-2 currently, generally 8-4 will take conference and move onto regionals.
Next week the Badgers will stay on the road to travel to Salt Lake on Thursday to go up against the undefeated Bruins, but spend the weekend in Ephraim competing against Idaho to avenge their latest loss.
