Lady Badgers basketball team starts season strong,
contending in Region 18
By Matt Harris
Staff writer
2-17-2021
EPHRAIM—A solid start to conference play has the Snow College women’s basketball team looking like a contender in the Region 18 race.
The Lady Badgers went 2-1 last week in three straight Region 18 games, opening up conference play with a dominating victory over Southern Nevada, 81-44, last Tuesday in what was Southern Nevada’s first game of the season due to pandemic cancellations.
Snow followed up their win with a solid effort against a tough Utah-State Eastern team last Thursday, but trailed throughout in a 60-51 loss to the Lady Eagles.
The Lady Badgers then won decisively in a road contest against Colorado Northwestern, 82-59, last Saturday. Snow has not lost a game to Colorado Northwestern since 2013.
Freshman Japrix Weaver, the leading scorer for the Lady Badgers this season, continued her star effort and notched a double-double of 24 points and 11 rebounds against Southern Nevada. Weaver also had outings of 11 points against USU-Eastern and 19 points against CNCC, leading the team in scoring all three games.
Against Southern Nevada, Grantsville native freshman Ashlee Edwards poured in a career-high 20 points to back up Weaver.
While the Lady Badgers jumped early on the Coyotes and Spartans, their matchup with USU-Eastern saw Snow as the early-game punching bag as they went down 15-6 in the first quarter.
With 2:25 left in the second quarter, the Eagles had pushed their lead to 18 points, 27-9, and the Lady Badgers pushed back a bit to go into halftime down 30-15 and shooting 25 percent from the field, while only hitting 1-4 on free throws.
Out of the break, Snow came with energy anew and clamped down on defense. Initially, USU-Eastern pushed the lead to 36-19, but Snow then responded with a 12-3 run over the next 4:16 of the third quarter. Slowly chipping away at the lead, the Lady Badgers got within six points going into the fourth, shooting 56 percent from the field for the quarter.
A layup from Edwards two minutes into the fourth quarter made it a one-possession game for the first time since the opening minutes, but the Lady Eagles responded immediately with a three-pointer. Snow never got close enough again.
USU-Eastern’s 3-point shooting, 7-22 overall, proved the difference-maker as they moved to 7-3 on the season.
The Lady Badgers 7-2 overall record is garnering national consideration as they received Top 25 votes by the NJCAA voters last week. Snow will have a tough stretch this week as they host Southern Idaho this coming Thursday, followed by a home matchup with undefeated No. 14 SLCC.
