Snow not intimidated by 15-0 SLCC
By John Hales
1-16-08

EPHRAIM—When the Snow College Badgers played their first conference game of the season against the Bruins of Salt Lake Community College last Saturday, there was plenty for the Snow basketball team to be intimidated about.
It was first-year head coach Michael Ostlund’s first game against his old boss and mentor, Norm Parrish, under whom Ostlund had served for the last five years as assistant coach.
It put Snow’s primarily freshman team (there are only three sophomores) up against SLCC’s more seasoned team (there are only four freshmen).
It was a mismatch physically, SLCC featuring not only tall guys but guys with some brawn as well, like 6-foot-8, 255-pound Kael Pope, who before the game looked and acted like a heavyweight prizefighter trying to scare his opponent. The Badgers looked scrawny by comparison.
And it pitted an apparently mediocre 9-7 team against the undefeated No. 5 team in the nation.
All things considered, Snow had no business giving SLCC a run for its money, having a real shot at winning, and finally losing by only three points, 63-60.
Intimidated they were not.
It didn’t look that way in the first half, however, when the Badgers faltered under the onslaught of the Bruins’ tough physical play.
After scoring the first four points in the game, the Badgers spent seven minutes trying to stop the SLCC juggernaut that went on a 19-0 run. Down 15 points after only nine minutes of play, the Badgers were looking at a very long game.
The Bruins brutalized Snow physically during that time, playing tight defense right up against the man. That turned out to be in Snow’s favor, however, when it translated into several fouls—14 of them in the first quarter.
Though first giving in to Bruin intensity, Snow eventually picked things up defensively, beginning with an important blocked shot from Everton de Araujo. That was followed by a steal and run down the floor for a dunk by Rory Patterson.
Snow stayed pretty much up with SLCC after that to trail 36-23 at the half.
“Don’t worry about it. Be tough, and hang in there. Just keep playing tough,” Ostlund told his players.
In the second period, SLCC loosened up its defense a bit, probably wary of foul trouble, and also out of necessity because Snow began executing better. That gave Snow room to move, particularly point guard Rene Farias.
Arguably, more than any other player Farias exemplified the Badgers’ mental toughness, their refusal to be intimidated.
Farias had an inauspicious first half: one field goal (of seven attempts), one assist and one steal.
Undaunted, he was a different player in the second half when he shot 4-for-6, had five assists and three steals, and smartly created scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates. His determination and effort were inexhaustible. He ended up being the second leading scorer for Snow, with 16 points in the game.
The entire team executed better in the second half, improving their shooting percentage from 27.3 percent in the first half to 63.6 percent in the second, and outscoring SLCC by 10 points.
With about 40 seconds remaining in the game, Snow was ahead by one point. Snow’s Donnie Lao was at the line for a one-and-one free throw. Coach Ostlund brought all four of the other players to the Bruin end of the court to fend off any Bruin offensive attack.
Lao missed the first free throw. With no Badgers to rebound, SLCC took the ball and, with 20 seconds remaining, nailed an important three-pointer to move ahead by two.
Another late-game free throw gave the Bruins their three-point margin of victory.
Later, Ostlund defended his decision to leave no rebounders on the Lao free throw.
“I think it was right, he said. “I’m not a completely conservative guy. We did some risky stuff all game. We were ahead, and Donnie’s one of our best free-throw shooters. We thought he was going to make it.”
Ostlund said that while losing the game was not okay, “we did prove a lot of things to ourselves. We did some things really, really well. We’re a better team this Monday than we were last Monday because of that game.”
He said another positive outcome of the game was that it won the Badgers some supporters.
“We did lose the game, but I think our players won a lot of people. I think a lot of people came to see what it was going to be about. [The players] made some people who were just coming to see, they made them real Badger fans.”