Improving Grizz close but no cigar at Regionals

The Rocky Mountain Grizzlies continued their late season upswell and played some of their best basketball of the season last week during the 2A West Regional Tournament in Riverton. Unfortunately, they fell just short of a state tournament berth, winning one of three games at Regionals.

Coming in as the fourth seed from the 2A Northwest, the Grizzlies had the unenviable task of facing second-ranked and top Southwest seed Wyoming Indian in the first round. The Grizz went toe to toe with the Chiefs before Wyoming Indian pulled away for a 64-44 win.

The Grizz came back strong the next afternoon and eliminated Shoshoni 54-48 as junior guard Bryce Haslem lit up the Wranglers for 22 points.

Battling for their lives Saturday morning, the Grizzlies faced Southwest second seed Big Piney, who had stopped Wind River in the first round, then fell to Greybull in the semifinals the night before. The game went into overtime, and the Punchers prevailed 53-48, ending the Grizzlies’ season.

“Despite our record and not making the state tournament, I felt we were peaking at the right time,” coach Pat Winland said. “I heard positive comments from other coaches about how well our team was playing at this point in the season. That’s a credit to the kids, who kept putting in the work.

“They could have made things miserable for everyone by not dialing in, but they responded and made the school proud.”

Wyoming Indian

Game one saw the Chiefs jump out to an 11-3 lead, but the Grizzlies battled back with an 11-1 run to lead 14-12 at the end of the first quarter. Two free throws each by Haslem and Cole Minchow got the run going, and a Haslem three-pointer cut the margin to two points, 12-10. Max Cooley and Haslem each hit one of two at the line, and Tucker Jackson followed his own miss on an in-bound play as Rocky Mountain took the lead.

A 7-2 run early in the second put Wyoming Indian back on top 19-16, but an aggressive drive by Minchow kept it close for the Grizz at 19-18 midway through the quarter. The Grizz seemed to have trouble finding open shots in the last half of the quarter, and Wyoming Indian outscored Rocky 12-4 to lead 31-22 at halftime.

Wyoming Indian gradually pulled away in the third quarter, outscoring Rocky 18-8 to lead 49-30 at the quarter break. The Grizz kept fighting and even finished the same with a 6-0 burst, but Wyoming Indian won by 20 points, 64-44.

“Against teams with better records, we’ve always talked about making them earn it,” Winland said. “I thought we came out and gave it our best shot, but their length and athleticism bothered us, especially in the mid-second and the third quarters. Their 14 offensive rebounds hurt us.”

Haslem led the Grizz with 11 points, and Minchow and Lafe Files added 7 each, Jackson 6, Cooley 5, Hudson May 4 and Noah Johnson and Jacob Bischoff 2 apiece. Jackson
led the team with seven rebounds, and Haslem and Files had four each. Cooley had four steals.

Shoshoni

Rocky Mountain had dropped a pair of hard-fought games to Shoshoni during the regular season, but this time the Grizzlies came out on top, leading for most of the game and holding off a late Shoshoni charge.

“Personally, I was more comfortable playing Shoshoni than St. Stephens,” Winland said. “One, I knew we could beat Shoshoni and would be confident going in. Two, their style of game is what we’re more accustomed to.”

The Grizz never trailed in the game, although Shoshoni battled back to tie the score once in the fourth quarter.

Rocky jumped out to a 9-1 lead. Bischoff drove for two off the opening tap, and Haslem drained a trey, then stole the ball and converted for two more. Jackson banked in a shot on an assist from Files to complete the outburst. The Grizzlies displayed great energy in the early going, especially on defense.

“Our ability to score helped us out defensively,” Winland noted. “We were able to get back, get set up and apply some full-court pressure to make it difficult to get into their offense.”

With Rocky leading 11-5, Jackson yanked down an offensive rebound and hit Files for a triple. Rocky led 14-5 and went on to lead 16-9 after the first quarter.

Rocky boosted the lead to 10 points, 21-11, when Files scored on a zip pass from Jackson and Files hit Haslem for his second trey of the game. After Shoshoni cut the lead to two, 21-19, Haslem knocked down two free throws and swished a trey, and Minchow flew to the bucket for two more. Rocky led 28-19.

The Grizz cooled off, however, and Shoshoni fought back to close the margin to three at intermission, 32-29. Haslem scored 16 points in the first half, draining four three-pointers.

“Bryce had a heck of a game,” Winland said. “Tucker had a good game inside and was a good defensive presence. Jake (Bischoff) did a good job rebounding for us.

“Bryce shoots that way in practice. We’ve been waiting for that. Once they (players) see the first one go in, that builds confidence in everyone. The kids were looking for Bryce.”

Shoshoni cut the lead to one point early in the third, but the Grizz surged again on the strength of back-to-back treys by the red-hot Haslem and a pair of inside baskets by Jackson. Rocky led 42-33 and kept the margin at nine, 44-35, heading into the fourth quarter.

The Wranglers had no quit in them and started the fourth quarter with a 10-1 run to knot the score 45-45 with three minutes left, but the Grizzlies closed the game by outscoring Shoshoni 9-3 to win 54-48. Jackson and Minchow hit clutch baskets down the stretch.

Haslem hit seven of 11 shots from the field, six of nine from beyond the arc, plus both free throw attempts, to score his 22 points, and Jackson scored 13 points on six-of-10 shooting. Minchow added 10 points, Files 7 and Bischoff 2. Bischoff pulled down seven rebounds, Jackson and Alex Hedges four each. May and Files had four assists each, and Files led with three steals, Hedges with two blocked shots.

Rocky shot 47.6 percent from the field in the game, hitting seven of 16 three-pointers and 13 of 26 from inside the arc. The Grizz had 13 assists.

Big Piney

The Grizzlies battled a tough Big Piney team from start to finish Saturday morning. The Grizz used a zone defense in the first quarter, which Big Piney shooter Cole Walton exploited to hit three treys in the first quarter, Winland noted, helping the Punchers build a 16-10 lead after one. Winland switched to a man-to-man defense in the second quarter, and Rocky outscored Big Piney 11-5 to tie the score at halftime, 21-21.

Big Piney outscored the Grizz 13-11 in the third quarter, but Rocky returned the favor in the fourth, 12-10, to send the game into overtime, where Big Piney outscored the Grizzlies 9-4 to win by five.

The Grizz had a chance to win it in regulation as, with the game tied 44-44, Bischoff drove toward the basket, was double-teamed and dished to Jackson inside in the final three seconds. His shot rolled off, and the game went to overtime.

The real story, however, was free-throw shooting. The Grizz hit just nine of 22 free throws in the game, five of 15 in the fourth quarter and overtime combined.

“The game came down to missed free-throw opportunities and not being able to get that one stop we needed,” Winland said. “Stoutenburg (21 points) was a tough player. Their offense goes through him.”

Minchow led the Grizzlies with 20 points and three assists, and Haslem added 7 points and five steals. May, Jackson and Files scored 5 points apiece, Bischoff 4 and Hedges 2. Jackson and Bischoff grabbed six rebounds apiece.

The Grizz finished the season with a 5-20 record.

The game was the final contest for Grizzly seniors Johnson, Cooley and Bischoff.