Grizzlies make the state tournament with two wins at Regionals

The Rocky Mountain Grizzlies are returning to State. For the first time since the 2021-22 season, the Grizzlies punched their ticket last week by placing fourth at the Class 2A West Regional Tournament in Riverton.

The Grizz almost made it last year but came away disappointed, falling to Big Piney 53-48 after eliminating the Shoshoni Wranglers following a first-round loss.

This year Rocky clobbered Kemmerer 52-31 in the first round Thursday, dropped a physical slugfest against Big Piney Friday night, 45-34, and eliminated Shoshoni 50-31 Saturday morning. The Grizz then fell to top-ranked Thermopolis, an upset victim at the hands of Wyoming Indian Friday afternoon, 61-38 in the third-place game.

“We’re peaking at the right time,” head coach Pat Winland said. “We were competitive all weekend and gave ourselves a chance to win in the Big Piney game and played the right way against Thermopolis.

“Defense was the key for us. We were getting great minutes off our bench, and people accepting and knowing their roles has been another key for us.”

Kemmerer

Despite what would appear to be an evenly matched pairing of a two seed (Rocky) vs. a three seed, the Grizz blasted the Kemmerer Rangers in the first round Thursday, building a 15-0 lead by the end of the first quarter and never looking back. Rocky went on to lead 22-7 at halftime, 38-21 after three and 52-31 at the final buzzer.

Seniors Tucker Jackson and Cole Minchow led the way offensively with 13 and 11 points, respectively, and freshmen Cooper Winland and Mason Moss added 9 points apiece. Minchow scored 7 points during Rocky’s first-quarter blitzkrieg.

“Cooper and Mason gave us a lift off the bench,” Coach Winland said. “We were limiting them to one shot early in the game, and that took the pressure off of us the rest of the game.”

Rocky shot 41 percent from the field, scored 18 points off turnovers, forced 20 turnovers with 14 steals and scored 36 points in the paint.

Joaquin Scheeler contributed 4 points, Lafe Files 3, Alex Hedges 2 and Hudson May 1. Moss snared six rebounds, Hedges five, and May dished off four assists.

Big Piney

Rocky led a physical Big Piney team well into the third quarter Friday night before going cold and falling behind.

Two three-pointers by Minchow kept the Grizz in the game early as Big Piney led 11-10 after the first quarter, and the Rocky defense turned it up a notch in the second period as the Grizzlies outscored the Punchers 11-6 to lead 21-17 at halftime.

Rocky led by as much as 6 points in the third quarter and was up 27-23 with a little more than a minute left in the period when the bottom fell out. Big Piney scored 6 points in a little more than a minute to lead 29-27 after three and built the run to 13-2 for a 36-27 lead midway through the fourth. The cold Grizz, who didn’t score for nearly six minutes, finally broke the ice with a Minchow trey and a Moss laser to cut the margin to four points, but Big Piney pulled away with a 9-2 run to win by 11, 45-34, having outscored the Grizz 22-7 in a 10-minute span.

“I think they physically got to us in the fourth quarter,” Winland said. “We had careless turnovers that led to easy layups for them, and that was the difference in the game. We lost 10 (Cole Walton) in transition a few times, and we knew going in that he was a three-point shooter.

“We didn’t execute well in the fourth quarter, and if we see them again (at State) we’ll hopefully make adjustments.”

Minchow finished with 11 points, Moss 9, Jackson and Winland 4 each and Bryce Haslem, May and Files 2 apiece. Jackson grabbed seven rebounds, Moss five, and Minchow and Files had three assists each.

Shoshoni

It might have been expected that the Grizzlies would come out tired and flat Saturday morning against Shoshoni after the physical and taxing loss to Big Piney the night before, but the Grizzlies were anything but flat, powering past the Wranglers 50-31.

“I told them (after the Big Piney game) that I wanted to keep coaching them for a few more games, because I love doing it,” Winland said. “They weren’t going to be denied this time.

“My main goal this year was to get these boys to State, and they did it.”

After Shoshoni took an early 5-0 lead, the Grizzlies went to the foul line nine times in the first quarter and hit all nine free throws, four by May, three by Minchow and two by Moss. Moss scored on a baseline jumper and a trey as Rocky led 14-10 after one.

The second quarter was all Rocky Mountain as the Grizz outscored Shoshoni 16-6 to lead 30-16 at halftime. Minchow scored 9 points in the quarter on two treys and a three-point “and one,” and Haslem hit two jumpers, Jackson a three-point play.

Rocky outscored Shoshoni 13-5 in the third quarter to lead 43-21 and built a 46-24 lead before Shoshoni trimmed the final margin to 19 points.

“We used a 1-2-2 press, then dropped back into our 2-3 (zone) just to make them work hard to get an open look,” Winland said of his defensive strategy. “Keeping people out of the paint is a big thing for us, plus rebounding.”

Minchow again led the team with 19 points, and May and Moss added 9 points each, Haslem and Winland 4 apiece, Jackson 3 and Hedges 2. Jackson and Winland grabbed eight rebounds each, Files four, and Jackson tallied four assists.

“Hudson got us off to a great start and probably played his best game of the year,” Winland noted.

Thermop

With a state berth firmly in hand, the Grizzlies hung with Thermopolis for quite a while in the third-place game before the Bobcats pulled away to win 61-38. Thermop led 11-6 after the first quarter and 28-16 at halftime, but Rocky Mountain outscored the Bobcats 17-14 in the third to trail 42-33.

“We just wanted to play the right way,” Winland said. “We were competitive for most of the game until it got away from us in the end. At one point we were down 42-34, and we went on a 12-0 run to make it 42-36 before they closed it out.”

Thermop won the fourth quarter 19-5.

Files scored 12 points for the Grizz, Minchow 10, Haslem 9, Jackson 4, Scheeler 2 and Hedges 1. Hedges snared six rebounds, Jackson four, and Jackson led with four assists.

State tournament

The Grizzlies will open the state tournament against the top seed from the East Region, the Sundance Bulldogs, today (Thursday) at 1:30 p.m. at Casper College. Rocky beat Sundance 48-46 in the first game of the season at a tournament in Wright back in December, but a lot of time has passed since then, Winland said.

“They are a totally different team, as we are,” he said. “Both teams have made great improvement. They’ll press us and play man to man.”

If the Grizzlies win, they will play the winner of the Big Piney-Pine Bluffs game Friday at 7 p.m., and if they fall to Sundance they will play the Big Piney-Pine Bluffs loser at noon on Friday. Ranked teams Wyoming Indian, Wright and Thermopolis are all on the other side of the bracket.

“I like our chances of getting to the championship game, but we’re going to have to play really well to do that,” Winland said. “Our side of the bracket is pretty evenly matched.”