Grizz win two of three in Shoshoni, enter break 5-3

The Rocky Mountain Grizzlies’ strong start to the 2025-26 season continued over the weekend in Shoshoni as they went 2-1 at the Wrangler Invitational.

Rocky fell to Class 3A Lyman Friday, 57-47, then swept a pair of strong 1A teams on Saturday, beating defending state runner-up Upton 53-45 and consolation champion Cokeville 56-46.

“It kind of went how I thought it would,” head coach Pat Winland said. “I was hoping to get three, but 2-1 is a pretty good record playing a quality 3A team and then beating two of the probably top five 1A teams. That’s something to be proud of.”

The Grizz were battling through some sickness and injuries in Shoshoni. Leading scorer Mason Moss was sick early in the week and “probably wasn’t 100 percent the rest of the time,” Winland said, and Travis Crosby rolled an ankle at Burlington. Then Jaxx May was sick, and Jaxson Sponsel had to have eye surgery. Both missed the weekend, Winland said.

“We were shorthanded, for sure, but I will say a lot of teams were that way, too, with their sickness and injuries. It’s that time of year,” Winland noted.

Lyman 57, Rocky 47

The Grizzlies got off to a slow start against the Lyman Eagles Friday, then played the 3A foe even the rest of the game. Lyman led 13-3 after the first quarter, and each team scored 44 points after that.

“Lyman came out (with a press), and we did not handle their pressure well,” Winland said. “We had turnovers and were rushing things. And I had to play Cooper (Winland) out of position the whole game with him to have extra ball handling duties breaking the press.

“I tried an array of press breakers, and the one that helped was bringing Cooper up so Mason didn’t have to do so much dribbling. We didn’t have as many turnovers after the first quarter.”

Evin Clendenen led the Grizz with 16 points, and Coach Winland said it was good for the sophomore “see the ball go through the hoop.” Moss added 14 points, Jaxon Hayes 11 and Winland and Kellan Jackson 3 each. Clendenen led the team with six rebounds, and Moss and Winland snared five apiece. Winland and Jackson finished with three assists each, and Jaxson Miller had three steals.

Rocky actually shot better than Lyman from the field, 48% to 42%, but Lyman scored 21 points off 23 Grizzly turnovers.

Rocky 53, Upton 45

Upton led Rocky Mountain 18-15 after a wild and wooly first quarter, but the Grizz outscored the Bobcats 38-27 the rest of the game: 9-7 in the second quarter, 17-11 in the third and 12-9 in the fourth as Moss and Winland combined for 43 points in the game.

“Any time you can hold a team to single-digit quarters, which we did in this game for two of them, helps you out. Then it was just a matter of Mason and Cooper getting rolling with some nice assists from their teammates. We cut our turnovers down, and we just had cleaner looks than we had against Lyman.

“They’re kind of in the same boat we are. They didn’t have any seniors and started a freshman. So they’re young.”

 Moss finished with 27 points, Winland 16, and Clendenen added 4 points, Hayes and Jackson 3 apiece. Jackson pulled down seven rebounds to lead the team, Winland and Clendenen six each. Moss had six steals and six deflections, and Hayes had three assists.

Rocky shot 45.7% from the field to Upton’s 37%, though Upton did hit nine three-pointers to Rocky’s two.

Rocky 56, Cokeville 46

Cokeville built a 32-23 halftime lead in the second game Saturday, but the Grizz lit it up in the second half, outscoring the Panthers 33-14 to win by 10.

“They could not miss (in the first half),” Winland said. “They got up by nine at half. They’d come down and hit a three, and then we weren’t scoring on the other end.”

Cokeville hit seven treys in the first half but only two in the second.

“At halftime, we made an adjustment to man (defense) and put Mason on their quick point guard (Hatch), and we outscored them 16-5 in the third. We also made an adjustment offensively. We kept Cooper in the post more, and he and Evan had it rolling there with some high-low action. And then Mason was Mason.

“Jaxon Hayes had some timely three-pointers, too, throughout the game.”

Moss finished with 23 points, Winland 16, Hayes 9, Jackson 5 and Clendenen 3. Winland grabbed nine rebounds, Clendenen eight, Moss six and Hayes five. Winland led with eight assists.

The Grizz go into the Christmas break at 5-3 and scheduled two shoot-arounds Monday and Tuesday before taking the rest of the week off and resuming practice next Monday, Dec. 29.

Coming off the break, the Grizz will play a pair of local 3A teams the second week in January, traveling to Powell on Thursday, Jan. 8, and hosting Lovell Friday, Jan. 9, then play in the annual Big Horn Basin Classic January 16-17.