Lady Grizz make it eight straight years heading to State

Coaches always hope that their team peaks at just the right time, and for the Rocky Mountain Lady Grizzlies, that time appears to be right now.

The Lady Grizz on Saturday punched their ticket to the state tournament for the eighth straight year by placing fourth at the 2A West Regional Tournament in Riverton, and head coach Justin Moss said his team is playing its best basketball of the season.

Moss said he is proud that the program’s winning tradition is continuing.

“Every coach wants to be consistently successful,” he said. “If you can build a program the kids can buy into and put in the work to be successful, you’ve got something. It’s fun to be a part of.”

The Lady Grizz crushed Big Piney in the first round of the tournament Thursday, 54-27, then gave second-ranked Wyoming Indian a battle Friday night before falling 50-43. Rocky came back Saturday morning to oust Greybull 41-28 and qualify for State, then fell to Wind River 34-31 in the third-place game.

Big Piney

Taking on Southwest third seed Big Piney in the first round at Riverton Middle School Thursday, the Lady Grizz dominated from start to finish, setting the tone with a strong defensive effort and plan.

“We knew they do pretty good in transition and do a good job driving and penetrating in their half-court sets, too, so we needed to stay in front of them and limit their transition,” Moss said. “We wanted to make them do things out of their comfort zone. Micah Strong is an incredible track athlete, and we needed to contain her.”

Contain they did, using a 1-2-2 zone, as the Lady Grizz jumped out to a 17-3 lead after the first quarter, with Big Piney scoring only one basket – by Strong. Lauren Bassett scored 7 points for Rocky, Brittly Boettcher 6, as the Grizz worked hard inside. Seniors MacKelle Moss and Rylee Winland scored one bucket each.

“They run a 1-3-1. We wanted to spread them out, so we ran our four-out look to move our girls around,” Coach Moss said. “We wanted to make them extend and be able to attack with some dribble drives. We pressed early and then intentionally didn’t press to save our legs for the next day.”

Rocky outscored Big Piney 12-9 in the second quarter to lead 29-12 at halftime and continued to pull away in the second half, winning the third quarter 12-6 and the fourth 13-9 to double up the Punchers 54-27.

Bassett led the Grizz with 17 points, and Moss added 11, Boettcher 8, Tarynn Schoening 6, Shelby Wambeke 4 and Kaysie Cooley, Keylee Christiansen, Halle Grandalen and Winland 2 apiece. Bassett also pulled down nine rebounds, Boettcher and Moss seven each, Christiansen 6, and Christiansen and Wambeke had five assists apiece. Schoening had three steals.

Wyoming Indian

The Lady Grizz came into the Wyoming Indian game Saturday evening with momentum and gave the Southwest top seed all they wanted before a packed house at the RHS Gym.

 Wyoming Indian came out strong and built a 14-5 lead by the end of the first quarter, then extended the lead to 18-7 midway through the second. But using an aggressive and active defense, the Lady Grizz launched a 12-0 run to take a 19-18 lead.

The outburst began with Bassett powering in a bank shot on an assist from Wambeke, and Cooley hit Moss on the fast break for two. Cooley drained a long set shot, and Bassett scored on a follow shot after an offensive rebound. Boettcher went the distance with a steal, and Bassett executed her patented move and bank shot to give Rocky the lead.

Unfortunately, Wyoming Indian knocked down a late three-pointer to lead 21-19 at halftime.

The Lady Grizz forced 10 turnovers in the quarter and outscored WIHS 14-7.

“We wanted to make them work on both ends of the floor,” Moss noted. “We didn’t want to allow easy shots and make them work the ball. On offense we wanted to move the ball and make them work (on defense).”

Moss said the Lady Grizz started the game with a man-to-man defense to prevent Wyoming Indian from hitting early three-pointers, but down by nine at the quarter break, he switched to a 1-2-2 zone with a three-quarter-court trap.

“We have length,” he pointed out. “Tarynn had six deflections. She does a really good job of that. And Lauren got going. Lauren and MacKelle played well together.”

Rocky came out strong in the third with an 8-0 mini-run to lead 27-21. Wambeke splashed a trey, Moss dished to Bassett, Boettcher hit one of two at the line and Moss fed Bassett for a layup. But turnovers began to hurt the Lady Grizz as Wyoming Indian went off on a 10-0 outburst to take a 31-27 lead, also hitting the offensive boards in the process. A pair of aggressive moves by Bassett around a WIHS trey kept the Grizz close after three, trailing 34-32.

Rocky Mountain hung with Wyoming Indian for most of the fourth quarter until Taya’Avy Dixey drilled a killer trey over Moss to put WIHS up 48-41, and the Lady Chiefs went on to win 50-43.

“We had too many turnovers, and some mental errors led to some physical errors,” Moss explained but said he was proud of how his team hung with the second-ranked team.

“One of the things we’ve been talking about is (playing) longer stretches of good basketball,” he said. “We’ve been progressing. I think we needed these four games to keep getting better. We’re growing and developing.”

Bassett finished with 21 points and eight rebounds, and Boettcher added 10 points, Moss 6, Wambeke 4 and Cooley 2. Moss led the team with 10 rebounds, six assists and three blocked shots.

Greybull

The Lady Grizz eliminated familiar conference foe Greybull 41-28 in a quick turnaround game Saturday morning as Wambeke poured in 15 points, hitting a trio of treys. Wambeke hit two from downtown and Schoening one in the first quarter as Rocky led 9-8 after one.

Rocky clamped down on defense in the second and outscored Greybull 9-2 to lead 18-10 at halftime as Wambeke scored 5 more points.

“Shelby really got going,” Moss said. “That might have been her highest scoring game of the season. That super helped us. It’s always hard to play Friday evening and come back Saturday morning. We were a little bit fatigued. Our biggest key against Greybull is our guard play, and we needed to pressure their guards with tired legs. Shelby responded, and Tarynn responded with deflections and activity.

“We imposed our will in the second quarter. We pressured them, which helped us get going offensively. Coach (Jeff) Hunt has done a good job with his team. Their guards are better, and it’s tougher to turn them over.”

Rocky gradually pulled away in the second half, outscoring Greybull 9-4 in the third quarter with both teams scoring 14 in the fourth.

After Wambeke’s 15 points, Bassett scored 8, Moss 6, Schoening and Boettcher 5 apiece, Christiansen 2. Bassett grabbed seven rebounds, Boettcher six and Christiansen four. Moss led the team with five assists.

Wind River

The Lady Grizz played Wind River for third place, having split two previous outings with the Cougars. Rocky pretty much controlled the game for three quarters before going cold.

“Their whole mantra is chaos,” Moss said. “We know we have to control the chaos. I call it poise in the noise. We were able to do that for the majority of the game. Both teams were on fumes, so it was low scoring.”

Wind River led 13-11 after the first quarter, but Rocky won the second 8-2 to lead 19-15 at halftime. Rocky led 27-23 after three, but Wind River came back to outscore the Grizz 11-4 in the fourth to claim the victory, 34-31.

One of the keys, Moss said, is that Wind River star guard Natalie Walker picked up four fouls by the third quarter. Not only did that limit her ability to score as the Lady Grizz built their lead, it allowed her to have fresh legs in the fourth, hitting a trey and two free throws in the final period.

“We had a rough fourth quarter. I think fatigue played a part,” Moss said. “We missed four layups and hit four of 12 free throws in the second half. We’re generally a decent free-throw shooting team.”

Bassett finished with 10 points, Wambeke 7, Christiansen and Moss 4 each, Cooley and Schoening 3 apiece. Bassett and Moss had 10 rebounds each, Christiansen and Boettcher six caroms apiece. Bassett led with five assists, and Moss blocked five shots.

State tournament

The Lady Grizz will open the Class 2A State Tournament at 10:30 a.m. today (Thursday) at Casper College against the number one ranked team in the state, the Tongue River Lady Eagles. TR beat Lusk and Burns during the 2A East Regional Tournament, then edged Lingle-Ft. Laramie 45-40 for the regional title.

Rocky fell to the Eagles 46-37 February 2 in Dayton.

“We were within four points with two minutes left,” Moss said. “They have a lot of athletes on their team, and they really thrive on offensive rebounds. We need to control the boards and be disciplined with our defense.

“I like our chances. This is one of those years where five or six teams could win it. I’m telling our girls, ‘Why not us?’

“We want to be the best version of us by the end of the season, and we’re trending in that direction.”