Rustlers Split Classic, Falling to 1-3
Team Effort Leads to Blowout, 117-66
The CWC Men's Basketball team was back in action on Thursday in front of a packed Rustler gym taking on Rexburg United out of Idaho. Coming off two narrow loses the previous week against top rated teams in the NJCAA, the game against Rexburg turned out to not be much of a contest. All 11 Rustler players who saw the floor tallied points, 5 players scored in double figures, and the 117 total points scored by the Rustlers were just 8 shy of the modern scoring record for CWC.
Though the final margin ended up being 51 points, the early moments of the game were dominated by Rexburg. The road team jumped out to an 11-4 lead before Coach Brad Schmit took a timeout at the 16:57 mark. After the early wakeup call, the Rustlers went on a 27-6 run taking a 31-17 lead at the 7:30 mark of the first half. The remainder of the 1st half was back in forth with the home team holding a 52-35 lead at the break.
CWC dominated the second half in all aspects of the game. "I was on the guys at halftime about their lackadaisical play to open the game. After the high of playing two top tier opponents, I knew our energy and effort to start the game might lack. The guys responded the way I wanted to see the second 20 minutes of the game." Commented Coach Schmit on his team's performance. While outscoring Rexburg 65-31 to the second half, the Rustlers saw major contributions from James Woods-19, Jacob Smith-18, and two home town favorites, Brady Fullerton-19 and Taylor Tidzump-6 points/9 rebounds.
Snow Uses Huge Second Half Surge to Race by Rustlers
After a lopsided victory against Rexburg United, the Rustlers were back on the court Saturday afternoon to take on a veteran Snow College team. With multiple returning sophomores, a dominant big man, and some timely coaching adjustments, the Snow Badgers took the last 13 minutes of the game by storm. Outscoring the home town team 41-21, ultimately taking the game 102-79.
Though the final score showed a 23 point win, the game was led a majority of the way by CWC. With 11:45 to go in the first half, the Rustlers took a 21-18 lead on a David Simental 3-pt shot. For the rest of the half the Rustlers played well on both ends of the court taking a 50-39 lead into halftime. Coach Schmit commented on his team's first half performance, "I felt our guys executed our game plan and system for a majority of the first 20 minutes. Ball movement, shot selection, and team play were at a high level."
The second half started out similar to the first half with CWC holding a 58-50 lead with 15:48 on the clock. During the next 2:40 though the Badgers dominated the game going on a 14-0 run retaking the lead 64-58. From there on it was all Snow as the Rustlers got outscored 38-21. "The second half saw our guys play as individuals over being a team. Hopefully our guys will grow from this experience and move forward with a team first approach." Quoted Coach Schmit on the second half of the game.
The Rustlers were led by 6'8" freshmen, Devin Rottweiler's 19 points, followed by David Simental's 15, and Connor Nelson's 13. One area where CWC dominated the game was bench points, outscoring Snow 56-31.
NEXT UP: Central Wyoming College (1-3, 0-0 Region IX) will travel to Scottsbluff, NE to face Williston State (ND) on Friday, November 16 at 5:30 PM and Western Nebraska on Saturday, November 17 at 4:00 PM.
