IT'S DEJA VOU ALL
OVER AGAIN FOR SNOW
by Rick Pike

Snow Holds Off CSI for 75-72 Victory

EPHRAIM, UTAH-March 4, 2006-If momentum and beating the league’s best team means anything, then Snow may be a formidable foe at the Scenic West Athletic Conference Tournament next week. For the second night in a row, Snow defeated College of Southern Idaho, ranked 20th in the NJCAA and first in the SWAC. The Badgers took a 68-58 lead with seven minutes remaining and held on for a 75-72 win.

“When you beat a team this good twice it’s big time. I thought we started a little sluggish but we stayed in it. That’s the thing about this team I love – they don’t quit . . . they competed,” said Roger Reid, Snow’s head coach. “Our defense was good all night but particularly in the second half.”

After holding CSI to 34 percent shooting Friday, the Badgers held them to 41 percent Saturday while shooting 48 percent.

“The coaches asked us to take away their three-point shooting and then go and get the rebound,” said Geoff Payne, Snow’s leading scorer. “From the tape we saw their best offense sometimes was missing threes and getting rebounds for easy put backs.”

The Badgers failed to execute the game plan in the first half. CSI took a 36-34 halftime lead largely because they out-rebounded Snow 14-9. Several points came on second chances as the Golden Eagles grabbed seven offensive rebounds in the first stanza.

In the second half, Snow gave up only two offensive rebounds and knotted the rebound totals at 22 for each team. No rebound was more important than Payne snaring a Golden Eagle miss with two seconds left and the Badgers leading 74-72. Payne was immediately fouled and hit one of two free throws to clinch the victory.

There were five lead changes and three ties in the first seven minutes of the second half. Then Snow got hot. Down 51-48, the Badgers went on a 13-2 run to take a 61-53 lead. The run was highlighted by three-pointers from Wes Berge, Bowie Jeffs and Jake Peterson. Snow’s lead grew to 11 before CSI slowly edged its way back.

“Hey this team (CSI) can come back in a heartbeat. When you’re that athletic you can get back into games quickly – but we withstood it,” remarked Reid. “If we hit a few more free throws it would have been better but give them credit for not quitting.”

The Badgers shot one of two from the free throw line five times in the final six minutes. While they weren’t making free throws, they were using a lot of clock.

“The guys did a great job of using up the clock,” said Reid. “Even if you don’t score every time you’ve got to take time off the clock in that situation and we did.”

For the second night in a row, Wes Berge was a big factor in a Badger win. The freshman from Orem played 29 minutes off the bench and scored eight points while frustrating CSI’s three-point shooters. The Golden Eagles shot just 5-19 from behind the arc.

“I know their coach a little bit and know their style. I knew I could stick on them and get my body in front of them when they were shooting,” said Berge.

The Badgers were led once again by Payne who finished with 31 points. Jake Peterson finished with 11 points while Bowie Jeffs and Chris Hoopes joined Berge with eight.

Snow honored their sophomores with framed pictures in a pre-game ceremony. Reid also went with an all-sophomore starting lineup to commemorate the final regular season game. The Badgers improve to 7-11 in league play and will face College of Eastern Utah in the first round of the SWAC tournament Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. in Couer d’Alene, Idaho.