Your source for news in Hot Springs County

Eighth grade team sees improvement

The middle school boys basketball teams had plenty of court time this past week, starting off with games against Worland Feb. 5 that resulted in a 56-29 loss for the 8th grade A team and a 33-16 loss for the B squad.

“As one of the top teams,” Shaffer said, “last time we met Worland we struggled scoring and gave up many layups based on turnovers. This time we played much better on the offense end scoring double of what we did when we first met them. We have really worked on ball movement and attacking the offense rebounds, and I think our last few games have showed this.”

Scoring were: McCoy Longwell – 10; Gavin Shumway – 9; Hadley Johnson – 5; and Roedy Farrell – 2

“The B games lately we have struggled finding more scoring since Williams went out with his injury,” Shaffer said. “We have worked on moving the ball, but turnovers have plagued us. Between turnovers and free throws we have limited ourselves scoring opportunities. We will continue to work on getting more shots and taking care of the ball.”

Scoring were: Shumway – 6; Johnson – 4; McCumber – 4; and Ben Wallace – 2

Next up for the boys were games against Lovell on Feb. 7, with a 44-16 loss for the A team

Shaffer said, “This was one of the first games for a while that we struggled finding points. We had several opportunities for some easy baskets, but just couldn’t finish. We played a little better defense than when we last met them keeping them 12 points less, but it was still higher than our goal for this game.”

Scoring were: Johnson – 6; Longwell – 5; Farrell – 3; and Chase Moeller – 2

Due to illness, injuries, and travel there was just a half game against Lovell’s B team, with a 26-11 loss for Thermopolis. “Although we lost by 15,” Shaffer said, “we saw some good things happen. Jensen attacked well getting to the line 6 times along with hitting a deep three to start the game. Unfortunately we struggled from the free throw line again hitting four of 11.”

Scoring were: Tanner Jensen – 5; Farrell – 3; Longwell – 2; and Wallace - 1

February 9 saw the boys in a quad against Riverton and Lander, with losses against Riverton of 42-21 for the A team and 17-8 for the B; the latter was a half game.

“We switched some things up going into this game as we still were dealing with injuries,” Shaffer said. “The defense seemed to work a little better as we held them seven points less than last time; however, we also scored seven less than last time we met so it didn’t help in the final score. I do feel though that our defense is getting much stronger.”

Scoring were: Longwell – 8; Moeller – 6; Farrell – 2; Johnson – 2; Shumway – 2; and Owen McCumber – 1

“Against a bit bigger of a team, we played pretty well in the first quarter holding them to only five points,” Shaffer said of the B game. “The second quarter we had a few more turnovers and allowed them some easy baskets to extend their lead to nine by the end of the quarter.”

Scoring were: Jensen – 3; Spencer Calhoun – 2; McCumber – 2; and Moeller - 1

Against Lander, the A team lost 32-24 and the B team lost in a half game 27-6

“All season our goal has been to hold teams under 40 points and Lander has been the team that we felt we could play with,” Shaffer said. “Unfortunately we dug ourselves a hole in the third allowing them 16 points to our four. We made an effort to regain ground in the 4th outscoring Lander by five but ended up short.”

Scoring were: Longwell – 14; Farrell – 6; Johnson - 2; Moeller – 1; and Shumway – 1

“Although we didn’t shoot well in this game,” Shaffer said of the B team, “we never stopped hustling. We definitely have some work to do and not the way we wanted to end our B season, but we got some good minutes in with these guys to hopefully prepare them for the A tournament.”

Scoring were: McCumber – 3; Johnson – 2; and Farrell - 1

Results from the seventh grade games will be in the Feb. 21 edition.

Seventh grade also saw plenty of game time, going up against Worland Feb. 5 with a loss of 42-22 for the A team and a 20-15 win for the B.

“We had another rough night for the A team over in Worland,” coach Daniel Webber said. “We had two of our starters out sick for this game so we had to change our rotation up quite a bit. Worland got us down early in a big hole that we couldn’t dig out of.”

Scoring were: Jeffrey Lewis – 11; William Coale – 6; Kanyon Gerber – 3; and Trenton May – 2

“What a great effort by the B team against Worland,” Webber said. “They really got tested as they got down early, fought back into it, and had the game tied with 2:30 left. From that point they were able to score five unanswered points for the win.”

Scoring were: May – 12; Ethan Crow – 4; and Mason Reese – 4

Against Lovell on Feb. 7, the A team lost 43-14 and the B team lost 22-11.

“This was another tough game for us as we struggled on both ends of the floor,” Webber said of the A game. We finally had all of our players back but we weren’t playing at 100 percent and it showed. We struggled a little bit with the their zone defense so we will work on how to attack that in practice. Defensively we have to figure out how to get more rebounds.”

Scoring were Gerber – 10; Chase Herring – 2; and Lewis – 2

As for the B game the coach said, “We really struggled to score in this game. We did get a lot of steals and I felt like our defensive intensity was there we just didn’t convert them into points. We will focus on taking care of the ball and getting shots up instead of turnovers.”

Scoring were Crow – 6; May – 3; and Reese – 2

At the Feb. 9 quad, the boys went up against Riverton and Lander. In the Riverton games, the A squad had a 56-19 loss and the B had a 35-25 loss.

“We did a much better job against Riverton the second time around,” Webber said. They are a tough, athletic team that we don’t much up well with but the kids fought hard defensively. We were able to get scoring from a number of players which is what we need.”

Scoring were Gerber – 5; Porter McCumber – 4; Herring – 3; Lewis – 3; Jhett Longwell – 3; and Ethan Music – 1

“Our B team fought hard in this game. Our defense is really improving and we scored a lot of points offensively. If we can limit second chance points, we will have a lot better shot at beating this team next time,” Webber said.

Scoring were: Crow – 10; Kale Bloedel – 2; May – 8; McCumber – 2; Jesse Rodriguez – 2; and Luke Dickey – 1

The A team had another loss, 40-29, against Lander though the B team came out with a 33-27 victory

Of the A game Webber said, “Lander really came out and shot the ball well to start this game off. We got down 13 in the first quarter and just couldn’t come back from it. I was happy the way we were able to spread the scoring around on offense. We will work on picking up our defensive intensity early on in games so we don’t get behind.”

Scoring were: Gerber – 11; Coale – 6; Herring – 4; Lewis – 3; Longwell – 3; and Music – 2 points

“Our B team really shot the ball well in this game,” Webber said. “Probably our best shooting performance so far this year. Our guards were very active on defense and created a number of turnovers which we were able to convert into points.

Scoring were: May – 13; Crow – 7; Rodriguez – 6; McCumber – 5; and Dickey – 2

 

Reader Comments(0)