Lady Badgers get first conference win,
beating Colorado team, 87-52
By Jacob Clawson
Staff writer
1-23-2020
The Snow College women’s basketball team threw out their four-game losing streak last week with a powerful victory over Colorado Northwestern, 87-52.
After a slow and frustrating start to conference play, the Lady Badgers finally pulled together enough momentum to pull off another win, as only a few games remain in their season.
Marking the best game the Lady Badgers have played since early December, the Lady Badgers 35 point sweep of Colorado Northwestern is one of the largest margins of victory Snow has seen this season.
While the week couldn’t be capped off with a second win over Southern Idaho, as the Badgers lost 58-69, Snow seems to be pushing past their mid-season crisis.
After asked about what the team needed and was looking for in last week’s game, Coach Mike Russell explained, “We need a win for sure. We can’t just keep digging these holes. I feel like our conference is pretty balanced and I don’t think anyone is going to go undefeated. So we have to do the little things that will equate to a win. We’ve played most of our games on the road, which is now something the team is used to, and so we’re just hoping for a good win next week.”
Russell was able to really capitalize on that statement with Snow’s strong win in Colorado on Thursday. Taking the immediate lead to start off the game, Snow simply refused to give into the Colorado defense while putting up some tough defense of their own.
The Lady Badgers’ freshman forward Shawnee Simpson put out a double-double performance on the court scoring 17 points on 7-of-10 shots from the field, including 10 rebounds and 7 defensive boards to cap it off. Not alone, Simpson and four others were able to put up double digit stats.
Micah Gustafson lead the team in points scored with 19, while Rachel Roberts and Lexi Peterson also scored in double digits. Reagan Yamauchi capitalized on her season as well with an impressive 9 assists, 6 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals.
This win really emphasizes the power and potential this young Badger team has, but a full turn around needs to take place if this team is going to make anything of what’s left in the season
Southern Idaho on the other hand, took on Snow with confidence and was able to fight back from a trailing first quarter. Despite only shooting 32 percent from the field versus Snow’s 41 percent, Idaho got off more shots and consequently put points on the board.
Petra Farkas led Southern Idaho with an incredible season high 24 points, nearly doubling her teammates, along with 14 rebounds, 5 turnovers and 3 blocks. This game marked the best game in her season, with personal best in six different stats.
Snow’s overall record is 10-12 for the season and 1-3 in conference play. Their next game will be Thursday in Salt Lake against Salt Lake Community College, who has remained undefeated so far in the conference. Following Salt Lake, Snow will face Southern Idaho once again in front of their own home crowd in Ephraim on Saturday.
Mens:
Badgers 2-2 in the conference after a win against Colorado Northwestern
The Snow College Badgers move to 2-2 in the Scenic West Athletic Conference after following the Lady Badgers’ lead and victory over Colorado Northwestern, but also falling short to Southern Idaho.
With a 17 point victory over Southern Idaho, Snow was able to keep their season from falling into a losing record. Unable to find and keep a substantial winning streak, Snow has continuously found themselves with a tied record, despite being the defending conference champions.
Claiming the advantage early in the first half, Snow was able to not only play, but cruise into halftime leading by a mile with a 21 point lead 56-35. The Badgers, only barely, outscored Colorado in the second half though, allowing them to make up only 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, keeping the positive pressure on Snow’s momentum. Norman was able to place a whopping 30 points on the board after shooting 11-of-18 from the field along with dropping five three-points through the net.
Although, Norman was only one of five who scored double digits against this Colorado defence. Tredyn Christansen scored 17 of his own, while continuing to lead the team in rebounds, but also found 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 sporting 12 points.
Saturday was a completely different look at the Badgers with Brayden Johnson and Trey Farrer leading Snow’s offence, while Norman struggled to get off two 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 Head Coach Robert Neilson after Snow’s loss against Salt Lake, he responded to 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. 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.
