EPHRAIM — The Snow College men's basketball team is young, but the leadership of three returning starters has the squad off to a good start.
The Badgers, under the direction of former BYU coach Roger Reid in his second year at the school, had a 10-4 record heading into a pair of weekend games with the College of Eastern Utah.
The team is led by forward Geoff Payne, who last year as a freshman topped the Scenic West Athletic Conference in scoring and earned the conference MVP award. Payne averaged 22 points a game and was in the top three in the conference in rebounding and field-goal percentage. This year, Payne is averaging 22 points per outing while shooting 67 percent from the field.
Backing Payne is sophomore guard Jake Peterson, who was second in the conference last year in assists. He didn't appear as a scoring leader last year but is averaging 8.7 points a game this year.
Also returning is Chris Hoopes, who made big contributions off the bench last year and is averaging just more than 10 points a game this year.
Despite what would appear to be solid offense, Snow is at the bottom of the conference in scoring, averaging 80 points a game. The conference leader in that category, the College of Southern Idaho, is averaging just more than 119 per game.
And so, it must be the team's defense that is making the difference, as Snow is second in that category, allowing just 66.5 points per game.
Payne, Hoopes and returning center John Clifford all appear in the conference's top 20 for rebounding, while freshman center Adrien Sturt is sixth in the conference in blocked shots.
The Badgers, however, have yet to be tested as the meat of their conference schedule approaches, and their fourth-place standing in the conference would appear to be a fair position. Their two early conference wins came over fifth-place North Idaho College, while the losses were handed to them by second-place Salt Lake Community College. However, the two losses to SLCC were decided by a total of five points. Last year Snow finished sixth in the conference with a 7-11 record and 10-20 overall mark.
Snow College men's schedule
Jan. 12-13 vs. College of Eastern Utah
Jan. 19-20 @ College of Southern Idaho
Jan. 26-27 vs. Colorado Northwestern
Feb. 2-3 vs. Salt Lake Community College
Feb. 9-10 @ North Idaho College
Feb. 16-17 @ College of Eastern Utah
Feb. 23-24 vs. College of Southern Idaho
March 2-3 @ Colorado Northwestern
March 7-10 SWAC Tournament