"Defensively, we played well. We played hard. We did what we needed to do defensively," he said. "We struggled big time on offense. Northwest Wyoming played great defense. They challenged our passes. They bumped us on the cuts. We haven’t played a team that has done that to us since early in the year against Casper. I thought physically we got beat tonight because (WNCC players) didn’t do a whole lot in our offense. I think the biggest thing for us is that we have had some easy games here lately and we finally stepped up to a team that will deny some things, and we didn’t adjust well all night long. That is what caused us some problems offensively."

The Cougars sputtered on the offensive side all night. The Cougars made just five 3-pointers — three from Tatiana Conceicao in the first half, one from Shana Coleman in the first half and one from Brittney Bessert in the overtime period.

Conceicao kept the Cougars in the game in the first half with her three treys. She scored 16 of her 22 points in the opening half. But it was Bessert’s trey in overtime that might have been the biggest. The overtime trey gave the Cougars their first lead since 17 minutes was left in the game.

Once Bessert nailed the trey, the Cougars finally got over their offensive hump and never trailed the rest of overtime. But the Trappers made it interesting. After WNCC ran out to a six-point lead at 65-59 on a Coleman drive down the right side with 45 seconds to go, Northwest slowly came back as Janis Beal nailed four free throws to cut the lead to 66-63 with 27.9 seconds left.

Coleman was then immediately fouled and missed both free throws with 27 seconds to play. But the Cougars’ tenacious defense forced a wild shot by Jamie Chicane and Molly McGrath was fouled with 6.7 seconds to play. McGrath hit one of two free throws to seal the win.

"Our defense kept us in the game," Harnish said. "I thought we played hard and played with great intensity. We didn’t rebound great, but it is a big win in a sense we found out what we need to work on the next two weeks. It gives us kind of a measuring stick."

The win almost didn’t happen as WNCC was down by as many as six points in the second half with 8:30 to play. The Cougars stayed tough and withstood the Northwest physical play. With under 30 seconds to play, WNCC forced a wild shot by a Trapper player and the Cougars got the rebound.

Coleman then drove the right side, but her layup rimmed out and Northwest grabbed the rebound. Northwest’s Erin Hicks was then fouled with 6.2 seconds to play and made just one of two free throws. That set up the dramatic closing seconds as Crystal Harden found an open Bessert for an easy lay-up with 1.1 seconds to play to tie the game. It was Bessert’s first points of the game.

"We talked about pushing the ball up the court and Brittney was supposed to block out and set a pick, but Crystal made a good pass and she took it to the basket. A little bit of that is luck," Harnish said.

Northwest 29 24 10 — 63
WNCC 28 25 14 — 67
NORTHWEST WYOMING
Brenda Robinson 8, Mariko Fujimoto 2, Erin Hicks 7, Jamie Chicane 4, Amy Hatch 1, Janis Beal 15, Kristin Pierce 24.
WNCC
Crystal Harden 4, Molly McGrath 6, Brittney Bessert 5, Karol Salazar 4, Sherronda Appleberry 2, Shana Coleman 24, Tatiana Conceicao 22.