The CWC men's basketball team were on a mission this past Thursday evening against Northwest College to move one step closer to locking up a Region 9 tournament play-in spot. Central Wyoming had previously stolen their January 28 matchup in Riverton, 55-52, and the Rustler's defense was on full display and limited NWC to a 32% field goal percentage.

The Trappers flipped the script on CWC right from the jump, and were on the mark with seemingly almost every shot they took. Northwest cashed in on 61.5% of their shots from the field in the first half, and the Rustlers found themselves in an uphill battle with a 13 point deficit by halftime. It wasn't much better for Central Wyoming in the next half of play, and although Isaac Patik had his eighth game of the season reaching double digit points, they still struggled to get scoring going outside of Patik. NWC stayed relatively hot and almost mirrored their first half on both offense and defense. The Trappers handed CWC their sixth conference loss of the season, 72-43, but the Rustler men are still in the hunt for a Region 9 tournament play-in game and have to get it done this next week against Western Wyoming and Casper College.