Rocky girls sweep Greybull and Shoshoni

Rocky Mountain girls’ basketball is on a mean streak, winning both of a two-game series this weekend.
The weekend started out with a home game against Greybull on Friday. Rocky was up 11-7 in the first quarter and 27-13 at the half.
Head coach Justin Moss said that the Greybull girls’ started to be worn out by Rocky’s press during the second quarter, and while the Rocky girls pressured Greybull from the start, they did not get into their rhythm until the second quarter.
It takes a lot of teamwork for that to happen, Moss said.
“Each girl has to do their job really well in order for that to happen,” he said. “And so one girl can’t be lackluster. Every girl on the court has to be doing their job well.”
Greybull continued to struggle the second half, scoring just 9 points to Rocky’s 22. Rocky won with a dominant 49-22 victory, scoring over twice the points of Greybull. Moss thought that Greybull would rebound a little bit the second half and gain some intensity, but that did not happen.
When it comes to moving the ball offensively, the game was the best so far, Moss said. Moss said he emphasizes “paint touches” or staying inside the key during a game in order to score more points.
Sophomore Lauren Bassett led in scoring with 18 points. Senior MacKelle Moss followed with 8 points, junior Brittly Boettcher with 7, sophomore Keylee Christiansen 5, freshman Kaysie Cooley 4 and sophomore Layla Gardner, junior Sharlotte Hanusa and junior Tarynn Schoening with 2 apiece.
Moss said it was great to see the scoring shared among so many girls, giving younger players an opportunity to play.
“We actually only have two seniors, MacKelle and Rylee Winland,” he said. “We do have some good underclassmen that are getting more and more comfortable in the varsity games, so that has been fun to see.”
Bassett had one of her best games of the season, Moss said, scoring an 8 of 9 of her shots. The Rocky girls did a much better job of guarding star Greybull freshman Perla Rodriguez this game. Rodriguez is a strong post, he said, but she was guarded well enough that she only scored 4 points.
He said camaraderie has been high throughout the season, with the whole team cheering loudly for each other and older players encouraging less experienced players.
Overall, Moss was happy with the 49-22 victory against Greybull.
On Saturday, Rocky played Shoshoni in an away game, which Moss said started with a show of sportsmanship. The teams both agreed to let two players, one from each team who had both been sitting out due to injury, to each make a layup at the beginning of the game.
Senior Winland, who recently injured her ankle, scored for Rocky while senior Tania St. Clair, who has been out with a sprained ankle from volleyball, scored for Shoshoni. Rocky allowed Greybull to win the tip and score the first layup while Rocky scored the second layup.
After the two layups, the ball was passed to the opposing coach to reset the play and mark the start of friendly competition. Moss said St. Clair came up to him after the game and thanked him profusely for the opportunity to score during her senior year at home.
“And then basketball started,” Moss said. “It was sort of a cool experience, something bigger than basketball, I guess.”
Again, Rocky was dominant from the start of the game, up 17-7 in the first quarter. Shoshoni rebounded in the second quarter, outshooting Rocky 11-7 to end the half with Rocky up by 6.
“Second quarter, we didn’t play great. We were a little bit more flat. We kind of turned the ball over,” he said.
The Grizzlies were intimidated by Shoshoni’s 1-3-1 zone defense strategy, where one girl takes the ball, three girls are in the middle and one girl is in the back, he said.
Rocky regained their lead in the third quarter, 9-5. Rocky adjusted the second half, Moss said, taking some outside shots and opening up the game. The girls also changed their press to add more pressure to the opponent and shoot more layups.
The strategy proved effective, with a dominant 20-5 final quarter by the Rocky girls to end the game 53-28.  Bassett led in scoring with 13 points, followed by Cooley and Boettcher with 8, Moss and Wambeke 7, Christiansen 5, Schoening 3 and Winland with the two-point layup.
Moss said that Rocky’s basketball players are exemplary both on and off the court.
“Great girls that are good to each other,” he said. “We’ve heard lots of compliments about our girls and how they conduct themselves, and so I’ve been pleased with that.”
The Rocky team prides themselves on outworking other teams, Moss said, and the girls will continue to work both on their individual role on the team as well as their collective strategy.
Moss said he is excited for the post-season and thinks that the girls will qualify for State if they play good basketball. He was hesitant to forecast the girls’ performance at State but said they could make some noise.
The Lady Grizz close out the regular season by hosting Wind River Friday at 4 p.m. for junior varsity and 5:30 p.m. for varsity.