The Snow College men’s basketball team bounced back into the win column by beating rival Utah State University-Eastern on Thursday 83-64 to stay one-half game back of conference leader Salt Lake Community College and in a three-way tie for second with USU-E and College of Southern Idaho.
“The conference is as close as it’s been for a few years,” said Coach Rob Nielson. “I think on any given night there are several teams that could beat each other. We are going to have to bring our best game to the court every night.”
Hagen Wright led the Badgers in scoring with 25 points and also added five rebounds. Drake Allen had another double-double with 16 points and 10 assists and also pulled down six rebounds. Clayton Southwick had 15 points and a team high seven rebounds while Chase Potter added 10 points in the Badger win.
“USU-E is a hard team to prepare for because they play a 1-3-1 zone defense and no one else in the league does that.” said Nielson. “I think they are playing that zone better this year because some of the players have had a year in the system.”
The Badgers jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first half, but the Eagles came storming back to cut the lead to three at the half. USU-E did lead by as many as five in the first half, but Snow never trailed in the second half, building a 19-point lead at one time. The Badgers out rebounded the Eagles 34-23 and finished with 25 assists.
Snow College will postpone their game this week at Community Christian College due to this week being finals week at Snow College and play a double-header, later in the season. The Badgers next game will be Saturday at home against No. 1 ranked Salt Lake Community College at 3 p.m. in the Horne Activity Center.
