Rocky Mountain Grizzlies split openers, stop Burlington
The rebuilding Rocky Mountain boys basketball team showed the Grizzlies are on the rebound with a solid performance at the combined Coal Miners/Herder tournaments played in Gillette, Wright and Glenrock Friday and Saturday.
A year ago, the young and inexperienced Grizzlies went 0-4 in Wright and Glenrock, but this year they played to a 2-2 record.
Friday, the Grizz edged Sundance 48-46 in Gillette and fell to top-ranked Wright 71-43 in Wright. Saturday, Rocky Mountain crushed Kaycee 62-14 and fell to Glenrock in Glenrock 49-40.
“Record wise, I thought it would come out like this,” coach Pat Winland said. “Obviously, we were hoping to win all of them but (realistically) thought we could steal one against Glenrock and go 3-1.”
Winland said while he’s generally pleased, the four games showed the Grizzlies have some work to do.
“We have an abundance of things to work on with number one being rebounding,” he said. “Number two is keeping the other team out of the middle, and number three is recovering out to shooters.
“I was pleased with our competitiveness.”
Sundance
Rocky’s never-say-die attitude and cool under pressure showed up in the win over Sundance. The Grizzlies led Sundance 37-34 heading into the fourth quarter and won the game by hitting seven of eight free throws down the stretch in a raucous gym.
Senior Cole Minchow went 4-4 at the foul line in the quarter, Lafe Files 3-4, while the Bulldogs hit just two of six free throws in the quarter.
“The Sundance game was almost like a regional tournament atmosphere,” Winland said. “It was really intense for a first game, and we showed a lot of grit and poise. Cole and Lafe hit their free throws late.”
Minchow finished with a game-high 19 points and led the team with four assists. Alex Hedges added 8 points and four rebounds, Bryce Haslem 7 points, Tucker Jackson 6 points, seven rebounds and three assists, Cooper Winland 4 points, Files 3 and Hudson May 1.
Wright
The number one Wright Panthers jumped out to an 8-0 lead on their home court Friday and cruised to victory. Wright led 17-9 after the first quarter, 37-14 at halftime and 52-22 after three, but the Grizz hung tough to outscore the home team 21-19 in the fourth quarter.
“Wright is heads and tails above a lot of the state right now, certainly in the upper echelon of 2A teams,” Winland said.
The Panthers went 4-0 at the tournament including a 90-80 win over co-number one Wyoming Indian.
Haslem led the Grizz with 13 point, and he had a remarkable nine steals in the contest. Files added 9 points, Minchow 6 points and six rebounds, Joaquin Scheeler 6 points, Jackson 4 points, May and Hedges 2 points each, Winland 1 point and three assists.
Kaycee
Saturday in Glenrock, the Grizzlies outscored the Class 1A Buckaroos in all four quarters: 19-4, 17-5, 16-3 and 10-2 on their way to a 62-14 win.
“This game gave us a chance to work on other things,” Winland said. “It’s OK to be on the other side of things once in a while and win with a blowout.”
Minchow fired in 27 points to lead the Grizz and added eight steals and four assist, leading the team in three categories. Haslem finished with 14 points, Files 7 and Hedges 5. Winland added 4 points, Jackson 4 points and seven rebounds. May had 1 point and three assists.
Glenrock
The Grizzlies gave Class 3A Glenrock a battle on their home floor in their final game Saturday.
“It was our fourth game in two days. I thought we competed with them and had chances to win late in the fourth quarter. The final score was deceptive. We had to foul in the end, and they hit free throws. We had open looks and didn’t hit ‘em in the end.”
Glenrock led 17-7 after the first quarter and 32-22 at halftime, but Rocky outscored the Herders 9-3 in the third quarter, trailing 35-31 after three. The Grizz pulled close trailing 41-40 before Glenrock scored the final 8 points of the game.
Minchow finished with 12 points, six rebounds and three steals, May 7 points, Jackson 6 points and six boards, Haslem 5 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals, Hedges 5 points and five boards and Files 5 points.
Junior varsity
The Rocky JVs won two of three games in the tournament, falling to Sundance in Gillette Friday, 28-23, beating Wright in Wright in a two-quarter game, 37-25, and topping Kaycee in Glenrock Saturday, 19-11.
Scheeler led the Grizz against Sundance with 9 points, and Winland added 7, Kellan Jackson 3, Jaxson Miller and Rylan Stebner 2 each.
Rocky trailed Wright 16-14 after the first quarter but crushed the Panthers 23-9 in the second to pick up the win. Winland scored 10 points, Scheeler 9, Jackson 8 and Miller, Jaxon Hayes, Cooper Ward, Travis Crosby and Evin Clendenen 2 apiece.
Rocky outscored Kaycee 9-3 and 10-8 in the two quarters played Saturday. Jackson scored 10 points, Crosby 4, Stebner and Clendenen 2 each, Ward 1.
Burlington games
In their only home game ahead of the Christmas break, the Grizzlies topped Burlington 49-43 Tuesday night in Cowley.
The Grizz edged Burlington 12-10 in the first quarter, then outscored the Huskies 16-8 in the second quarter to lead 28-18 at halftime. Leading 19-13, the Grizz launched a 9-2 run to lead 28-15 until the Huskies drained a late three-pointer.
Burlington edged Rocky 11-10 in the third quarter to trail 38-29 and outscored the Grizz 14-11 in the fourth. The Grizz had the game well in hand leading 49-37 in the final 30 seconds before Burlington knocked down two late three-pointers.
Jackson led the Grizzlies with 14 points, and Minchow added 11, Haslem 9, May 7, Hedges 6 and Winland 2.
“We are happy for the win,” Winland said. “We saw some good things tonight. We also saw things that we need to work on in practice. Burlington plays hard and made us earn it.”
Shoshoni tournament
The Grizz will travel to Shoshoni this week for the Wrangler Invitational. Rocky will tip off against Class 3A Lyman at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Riverside at 1 p.m. Saturday and Cokeville at 4 p.m. Friday. The tournament features varsity squads only.