Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 EPHRAIM — The Snow College men's basketball team opened league play in the Scenic West Athletic Conference with wins at Colorado Northwestern (CNCC) and USU-Eastern last week. The Badgers thumped the Spartans of CNCC, 78-49, in Rangely on Thursday, then beat USU- Eastern in a shootout on Saturday in Price by a score of 112-104.
Both teams had five players in the scoring column with double figures on Saturday as the Badgers and Golden Eagles both scored more than 50 points in each half. The Badgers led 55-51 at the break and then outscored their hosts 57-53 in the second half.
Snow's
Walter Wright led all scorers with 33 points and his teammate
Aziz Leeks scored 22.
Romain Louiserre added 18 points for the Badgers while
Gentrey Thomas contributed 16 and
Le'Jon Johnson chipped in 11. USU- Eastern was led by Hamdi Karoui's 25 points off the bench while Bryan Harris scored 19, and Juwan Moody and Phillip Winston each score 15. Leeks was the only player on either team with double digit rebounds, pulling down 11 boards to go with his 22 points.
The game was tight the whole way with six ties and four lead changes. USU- Eastern started off hot, earning its biggest lead of the night five minutes into the game at 15-8. After Snow took a four-point lead at halftime, USU-E tied the score at 65 five minutes into the second half before Snow slowly started to pull away. Over the next 10 minutes the Badgers slowly built their lead, finally stretching it to double digits, 100-89 with four minutes remaining.
Both teams shot well with Snow hitting 35 of 66 from the field (53 percent) including nine of 19 (47 percent) from three-point range. The Badgers held off the Golden Eagles by going 33 of 38 (87 percent) from the free throw line. USU- Eastern hit 50 percent from the floor (29 of 58) and 45 percent (nine of 20) from long range. They converted on 37 of 52 free throws (71 percent).
Snow (now 11-3 overall) plays at ranked fourth ranked Salt Lake Community College (10-0) on Thursday and then takes a week off for Christmas before playing in a tournament in Arizona. USU-Eastern (9-5 overall) will host second ranked College of Southern Idaho (13-0) and No. 21 North Idaho College (12-1) as they continue league play this week.
