The Snow College Badgers went on the longest road trip of the season playing three games in three days in Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California and came away with three wins to clinch the second seed going into the Region XVIII Tournament in Salt Lake City. The Badgers downed the Coyotes of Southern Nevada 88-82, Community Christian College 98-76 and then Community Christian again 99-84.

"This was a tough road trip," said Head Coach Rob Nielson. "We knew it would be, but I think it also helps prepare us for the tournament next week."

With the three wins the Badgers clinched the number two seed behind Salt Lake Community College and it also means Snow College will face the Saints of Community Christian College a third time in less than a week.

"We learned a lot about this team with these two games" said Nielson. "We can now take a look at some film and have some time to prepare a little better for our game on Thursday. They are a good team that can shoot and take it to the basket. We'll be able to plan and prepare better for our next meeting."

Thursday the Badgers were led by Wyatt Lowell who had 27 points, Drake Allen added 23, Clayton Southwick had a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds, Hagen Wright had twelve points and Chase Potter ten as the starters played a lot of minutes in the win.

"We relied heavily on the starters tonight and we expended a lot of energy trying to come from behind," said Nielson. "Mason Chase gave us some really good minutes even though he didn't score much. He did a lot of other things on the floor that we needed to get the win."

The Badgers fell behind by as many as 26 points in the first half, but were able to cut the deficit to 10 at the half and then took the lead within the first four minutes of the second half.





 

After traveling another four hours and a short night of sleep Snow College took on the Saints of Community Christian College in a battle that saw Drake Allen come up one assist short of a triple-double. Allen finished with 15 points, ten rebounds and nine assists. Derek Marlowe came off the bench to spark the Badgers hitting four out of five three pointers enroute to a 22 point night.

"You could tell a lot of our starters were tired from the effort the night before," said Head Coach Rob Nielson. "We needed a spark from our bench and Derek really provided that for us with his shooting and also his defense. He just had the energy we needed off the bench."

Hagen Wright had 12 points, Ben Tew came off the bench to score eleven, Wyatt Lowell also had eleven and Clayton Southwick added ten points.




 

Snow College clinched the number two seed for the Region XVIII Tournament with a 99-84 win over the Saints of Community Christian College.

The Badgers were again led by Drake Allen with 23 points, Hagen Wright had 17, Wyatt Lowell 16, Clayton Southwick scored ten in the second half to finish with 12 for the game and Mason Chase came off the bench to score eleven.

"I felt like this game might be tough," said Head Coach Rob Nielson. "We gave them some confidence with our play on Friday and I thought we might be a little flat on our third game in as may days. We needed good play from the bench again."

Ben Tew and Hayden Franson came off the bench and played a lot of minutes scoring five points each in the first half. The Saints made a run on the Badgers and got to within four points before a time out and regrouping by Snow College to rally and extend the lead back to double digits.

"We have some work to do to prepare for our next game," said Nielson. "If we want to advance in the tournament we will need to play much better defense against this team."

The Badgers will face the Saints in the first round of the Region XVIII Tournament on Thursday at 2pm at Salt Lake Community College. The game can be heard on KMTI-AM 650.