TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (January 9, 2019) - With the start to the season that the Salt Lake Community College women's basketball program has had, losses have been unusual circumstances to deal with.

The Bruins had to deal with that unusual feeling this week, after falling 62-60 at the College of Southern Idaho in the Scenic West Athletic Conference opener for both programs. The loss, which dropped Salt Lake's overall record to a still-sterling 14-3, might be a positive as Salt Lake prepares for another weekend of Scenic West play.

"We learned a lot from our game at Southern Idaho," said longtime SLCC coach Betsy Specketer. "It was the first SWAC game for most of our players and I think they learned very quickly that league play is very different from other games, especially on the road. I was proud of how our players responded in the second half and hopefully we'll build on that as we prepare for this weekend."

Two unique challenges will present themselves this week in league play, with a one-off game at Colorado Northwestern on Thursday and the league home-opener on Saturday against Snow College. The Spartans have opened the season with a record of 3-16, with a conference-opening loss to USU Eastern last weekend. CNCC is 1-3 at home this season.

Saturday's matchup against in-state rival Snow College will bring the usual emotions, with the Badgers starting the season on a 13-4 run. Snow started the season at 9-0 and is on a 4-game winning streak. The Badgers will play their league opener on Thursday at Southern Idaho.

Specketer said the lessons from last weekend will help her team understand the pressures ahead of them in the coming weeks.

"I hope our team learned that five consecutive league championships are going to get them everyone's best effort," she said. "We weren't ready for that at CSI, but hopefully, we'll be ready next time."

Thursday's game at Colorado Northwestern is scheduled for a 5:00 p.m. start, while Saturday's league home-opener against Snow College is scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m. The game will be followed by the SLCC men's basketball program playing Snow, with a scheduled start of 5:00 p.m.