#1 Salt Lake In Full Snow Removal Mode To Advance To West District Championship
(Feb. 26, 2022) Taylorsville, UT – The much anticipated Region 18 Championship game between the #1 Bruins and #12 Snow was expected to be a doozie. Salt Lake had dismantled the Badgers by 30 early in the year, but two weeks ago, a much more polished Snow College pushed Salt Lake to the limit before bowing out 99-94.
The third meeting, however, was almost a carbon copy of the first meeting between the two teams. A game in which Salt Lake pounded Snow 94-64. With all the hype of a Region Title, this game was basically decided within the first five minutes. With the game tied at 5 (the only tie of the game), Salt Lake scored 12 in a row to go up 17-5, essentially salting away any hopes Snow had of taking down #1.
Pushing to a 48-30 halftime lead, the Bruins pushed even harder in the second half to run away from the Badgers 95-61. With the win, SLCC claims their 2nd Region XVIII championship in three years (2020 also beating Snow), and capturing the District Title as well in 2020.
Salt Lake (31-1) will now watch and wait for the Region 1 Championship game winner to emerge, to see who they welcome into Bruin Arena next Saturday for the West District Championship game. That game will be Monday, Feb. 28, between Cochise College (28-3) and Arizona Western College (26-4) in Yuma, AZ.
The two region winners will meet for the District Championship on March 5 to determine who will receive an automatic bid to the National Tournament, March 14-19, in Hutchinson, KS.
Salt Lake used 21 of Chase Adams’ game high 27 points to cruise to their 18 point halftime lead. Adams also dished out 5 apples. Following Adams effort were Festus Ndumanya with 17 points and 7 boards, scoring 10 of his points after the break, and Max Watson, who came off the bench to contribute 14.
After suffering their only loss of the season on Feb. 16 to rival College of Southern Idaho, the Bruins have now put together three wins in a row.
For the Badgers, who fall to 25-7, they were led by Drake Allen’s 18 points and 4 assists. Chase Potter added 13, with Wyatt Lowell complimenting 11 points and 9 rebounds. Clayton Southwick also ended with 9 boards. Snow never led in the game and trailed by as many as 38 late in the game.
Will there be an At-large possibility for the Badgers? That’s a wait and see proposition. It might depend on how Salt Lake fairs in the District Championship game. It would be a long shot to have two At-large entries from the same region who didn’t field the District Champ.
