GAME NOTES:

• The Snow College women's basketball team will start a three-game road stint in Twin Falls, Idaho Thursday at 5:00 p.m. against No. 9 College of Southern Idaho. The Badgers will then head to Coeur d'Alene Saturday to take on North Idaho College at 2:00 p.m. MST. 

 

• The Badgers are coming off a weekend where they dropped both of their games against No. 20 Salt Lake Community College, 73-58, and Utah State University Eastern, 64-58. 

 

• The Badgers are 7-1 this season when they win the opening tip and 58-29 all-time under Head Coach Zu Grinsell. 

 

• Under Grinsell, the Badgers are 83-16 when they out-assist their opponents and are 11-0 when they accomplish it this year. They are 2-4 this year when they record fewer assists.  

 

• The Badgers are 12-2 this season when they score more than 60 points. They score on average 71.3 points per game. 

 

• Snow College holds opponents to an average of 56.4 points per game, and the Badgers have won 11 games this year when they hold opponents to less than 59 points. The Badgers are 63-13 under Grinsell when they achieve this feat.

 

• The Golden Eagles are 17-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play and are No. 9 in the NJCAA Division I Top 25. CSI is defeating teams by an average of 22.8 points per game and is committing 7.6 fewer turnovers per game than its opponents. 

 

• The Badgers trail the all-time series against CSI 37-14. They went 1-2 in last year's regular-season meetings, defeating the Golden Eagles on the road, 69-60. 

 

• NIC holds a 6-10 record on the year and is 1-2 in conference play with losses to CSI (78-51) and SLCC (73-58), and a win against Colorado Northwestern Community College (72-49).  

 

• The Cardinals lead the series 14-7 all-time. The Badgers took all three meetings last season by an average of eight points. 

LAST TIME OUT: The Snow College women's basketball team concluded its opening conference homestand as they fell to both No. 20 Salt Lake Community College 73-58 and Utah State University Eastern 64-58.

The Badgers are coming off their conference opener, where they decisively took down Colorado Northwestern Community College 68-46. 

The match started as both teams traded buckets for the first five minutes of the first quarter, which led to an 8-8 score. The Bruins would turn on the jets to close out the first period on a 14-6 run to go up 22-14. 

Dalana Jakovljevic opened the second quarter with a personal five-point burst to get the ball rolling for the Badgers and to keep pace with the Bruins. The Badgers would outscore the Bruins 6-2 to enter the half down four, 32-28. 

The second half had SLCC open with an 8-3 run to extend their lead to nine before Seni Tuipulotu and Hartlynn Richins would combine for the next eight points, four apiece, to close the gap to one. The Bruins matched the energy with their own 10-2 run to push the lead back to nine entering the final stanza. 

The Badgers regained momentum to start the final quarter of action as Lala Baldwin knocked down back-to-back threes, the second of which was from 28. It was followed by an Avery Allred steal on the next possession that led to Tuipulotu putting the game back within a point on a fastbreak layup. 

SLCC would proceed to outscore the Badgers 23-9the rest of the way to close out the game 73-58. 
Three Badgers scored double digits, with Baldwin leading the way with 14 points. Allred and Jakovljevic were right behind with 13 and 12, respectively. Tuipulotu was the leading rebounder for the Badgers with 11 and was one point shy of a double-double with nine points. 

Following the match with SLCC, the Badgers turned their attention to the visiting Eagles, who were in town for their first of two visits this season. 

USUE would start the game with the first five points of the contest, but the Badgers would find some of their own production to keep the Eagles in reach with a score of 9-5 by the midway point of the first quarter. 
USUE would spark a 10-4 run the rest of the period before Baldwin connected on a three-point play in the final 10 seconds as she got the layup to fall plus the accompanying free throw to bring the score to 19-12 into the second quarter. 

Baldwin would keep the heat on as she got back-to-back threes to rain in to start the second quarter to pull the score back to three points. Both teams continued the point exchange as the Badgers outpaced the Eagles 15-12 in the period. The Eagles were able to maintain their lead into the half, up 31-27. 

The Badgers would start the second half on the back foot as USUE went on a 10-4 run to extend their lead to 10, five minutes into the period. 

A Tuipulotu jumper and steal on the following possession kick-started the Badgers' offense as Kysa Shippen was able to deliver a fast break layup off the steal and a 6-3 run to cut the lead to 44-37 entering the final quarter of play. 

The final stanza saw both sides trade points early until Baldwin hit a three-pointer, combined with a Megan Johnson layup the following possession, to cut the lead to four with 5:30 to play. USUE would answer with its own five-point run to keep Snow College at bay. The Badgers wouldn't get the Eagles' lead below four points for the remainder of the game as they fell 64-58. 

Baldwin led the way for the Badgers with 20 points and four rebounds. The only other double-digit scorer was Sydnee Smith with 10 points. Johnson led the Badgers in rebounds with seven and recorded seven points to accompany it.  

UP NEXT: Snow College will continue its road trip to in-state rival USUE Jan. 22 at 5:00 p.m. inside the Bunnell-Dmitrich Athletic Center. The Badgers fell to the Eagles last week in Ephraim, 64-58. For video streaming and live stat information, visit snowbadgers.com.