Lady Badger play well, but fail in final game 69-53 against SLCC
Matt Harris
Staff writer
1-26-2017
SALT LAKE CITY—Just when there was cause for celebration, the Lady Badgers had their good times halted by a heartbreaking loss to rival Salt Lake.
The Snow women’s basketball team served cold vengeance to Southern Idaho (CSI), who embarrassed the Lady Badgers in their last game, by way of a convincing 69-53 victory to even Snow’s record at 8-8. The good times ended prematurely, however, as rival Salt Lake dashed their hopes of an upset bid with a comeback victory over Snow, 56-50.
The Lady Badgers hoped to make up for their previous outing against CSI and did so in glorious fashion. Snow deconstructed the Lady Eagles’ offense for four quarters, limiting them to roughly 36 percent field goal percentage and a paltry 16 percent from three. Meanwhile, Snow shot 44 percent and made 33 percent of their threes en route to the victory.
“Our practices have been noticeably better, and our players are more focused,” head coach Mike Russell said. “Our team defense has become a major focus, and it’s improved immensely.”
Freshman Lindsay Cook led the Lady Badgers with a very accurate shooting night, going eight of 10 as part of her 17 points. Freshman Harley Hansen played second fiddle with 16 points, while freshman Madison Mooring did her damage from a distance, making three of six three-pointers as part of 11 points on the day.
Good times looked to continue when last Saturday the Lady Badgers faced the rival Salt Lake Lady Bruins. With the Badgers holding a seven-point lead with 5 minutes left to go, it looked as if Snow was going to pull off the unlikely upset over the No. 7 team in the country, but Salt Lake had other plans. Scoring the next 12 points of the game over a four-minute span, Salt Lake rallied while Snow could not get another made basket until the final 40 seconds.
The Lady Badgers never recovered, and Salt Lake remained undefeated in the Scenic West Athletic Conference.
“We believe we can compete with and beat any and every team in our conference, and we have proved that with our recent play,” Russell said. “We controlled the tempo in [Saturday’s] game and really did everything we needed to win, except close out the game.”
Mooring led Snow in scoring, hitting four threes and scoring 14 points in a primarily defensive battle. The Lady Badgers are third in the SWAC at 3-3.
Snow next plays on the road against Utah State-Eastern today, before returning home to play Colorado Northwestern at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
