Grizzlies to State: Rocky Mountain wins two at regional tournament

A young but determined Rocky Mountain boys basketball squad punched their ticket to the state basketball tournament with a solid 2-2 performance at the 2A West Regional Tournament in Riverton last weekend.

Coming into the tournament as the second seed out of the northwest, the Grizz came from behind in game one Thursday to defeat southwest third seed Kemmerer, 55-46. The Grizz battled southwest top seed Wyoming Indian in a Friday night semifinal contest and fell to the Chiefs 61-47.

The Friday night loss dropped the Grizz into a Saturday morning loser-out game, and the Rocky team stepped up their defense to defeat Big Piney (2 South) 43-32. The exhausted Grizzlies had little energy by the 1 p.m. third-place game and fell to Shoshoni (3 North) 53-38.

Head coach Pat Winland said his young team met a major goal by qualifying for State. The Grizz have no seniors and just three juniors on the roster.

“From day one in practice, this was my goal for this group of kids, to get them to State, because it’s all about them. It’s for them,” Winland said. “I’ve been pretty demonstrative with them during timeouts and at halftime, just getting after them and wanting them to seize the opportunity. And they responded.

“Different kids during the tournament stepped up and sparked us, like Kellan (Jackson) against Big Piney. Those are the performances you need to advance to the next week, to the state tournament. Just a play here or there from a certain player at a certain time, like a rebound or steal, just comes in handy and can make a difference. I write on the board: ‘Value every possession.’”

Rocky 55, Kemmerer 46

Winland said the Kemmerer Rangers employed a box-and-one defense against Rocky leading scorer Mason Moss, so others stepped up, notably fellow sophomore Cooper Winland, who scored 9 points in the first half, after which Kemmerer led 26-20.

“They were playing a box and one on Mason, so we spent the first half trying to take advantage of that, and we went in to Cooper, and Cooper responded,” Coach Winland said. “And then Jeff (Samson, assistant coach) came through again at halftime with some things that we were able to use to free Mason up and get him some better looks. And off of those Cooper and Mason got it rolling. Our defense was great in the second half, too.”

Winland noted that son Cooper did a great job, defensively, against Kemmerer leading scorer Cage Bowen, who came in averaging 16.8 points per game, to just two baskets and 5 points.

The adjustments worked. Held to 4 points in the first half, Moss exploded for 15 points in the second while Winland scored 11. The Grizz outscored Kemmerer 20-11 in the third quarter and 15-9 in the fourth to win by nine.

Winland finished with 20 points, Moss 19. Jaxon Hayes added 8 points, Evin Clendenen 6 and Jackson 2. Clendenen pulled down 11 rebounds, Winland nine, Moss eight and Jackson seven. Moss tallied four assists, Jackson three.

The Grizz hit just three of 18 three-point attempts but grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and scored 14 second-chance points.

Wyo. Indian 61, Rocky 47

The Grizz came out strong against the Wyoming Indian Chiefs Friday night, building an early 13-8 lead as Moss fired in 9 points, but the Chiefs scored the final seven points of the quarter to lead 15-13 after one.

A power move by Clendenen and a Moss trey gave Rocky an 18-15 lead early in the second quarter, but the Chiefs started forcing turnovers and stealing the ball – seven turnovers in the quarter for the Grizz – to take a 25-20 lead, then went on to lead 34-24 at halftime. After scoring 12 points early, Moss took the brunt of an aggressive Wyoming Indian defense, though he eventually finished with 22 points.

“I thought they roughed Mason up a little bit. They got away with some stuff, which I let the officials know about,” Winland said.

Rocky hung tough for a while in the third quarter, staying within eight to 10 points, but Wyoming Indian ended up winning the third quarter 15-8 to lead 49-32. The Grizzlies had no quit in them, however, and outscored WIHS 15-12 in the fourth quarter to trim the final margin to 14.

“It was a tough environment for the kids, but I think they enjoyed playing in front of that big crowd, and that will only benefit this group in the future,” Winland said. “They are just a team that we have a hard time guarding man to man, and they were able to hit some threes on us the second half to extend their lead.”

The Grizz actually shot much better from the field than the Chiefs, 55.3 percent to 40.6 percent, but Wyoming Indian forced 24 turnovers (with 19 steals) and scored 28 points off the Rocky miscues.

Moss had a strong game, leading the team with 22 points, seven rebounds, six assists and four steals. Clendenen scored 14 points, and Winland added 8 points and six rebounds. Hayes chipped in with 2 points, Jaxson Sponsel 1.

Rocky 43, Big Piney 32

After playing the final game of the tournament Friday night, the Grizzlies had to turn around and play the next morning at 9:30, but they prevailed against a gritty Big Piney squad, 43-32.

The Punchers did their best to contain Moss and, indeed, held him to zero points in the first half and 8 points total, but others stepped up.

Big Piney built a 12-9 lead by the end of the first quarter, though Winland scored 6 points, Clendenen 3, but Rocky started the second quarter with an 11-0 run as Jackson drained back-to-back treys, and Hayes added a third to put Rocky up 20-12. The Grizz went on to lead 22-17 at halftime.

Big Piney edged Rocky 7-6 in a low-scoring third quarter, but the Grizz began to widen the lead in the fourth with a 10-5 run to lead 38-30, then outscored Big Piney 5-2 the rest of the way to win by 11.

“It was tough coming off that 7:30 game the night before and getting up early, but we prepared for it all week. We knew this would be a possibility,” Winland said. “We thought zone would be our best shot (defensively), based on their shooting percentage. Their man offense is real deliberate, and they like to throw it inside, so we took our chances in the zone. That paid off.

“Big Piney kind of played a junk defense on Mason, limiting his touches. It’s like face guarding and bodying him up. They had three guys on the bottom, and they had their other guy on the top of the key, but the other guy was following Mason around. And so thank goodness for Kellan to play his best game in the season, and Cooper was able to get some looks inside.”

The Grizz shot 43.2 percent from the field to 31.8 percent for Big Piney. The Punchers hit just three of 16 shots from beyond the arc against the Rocky Mountain zone. Rocky scored 15 points off 15 Big Piney turnovers.

Jackson finished with 12 points, Winland 12 points and four rebounds. Moss added 8 points, five boards, three assists and three steals, and Clendenen scored 7 points, Hayes 4.

Shoshoni 53, Rocky 38

Sometimes a player goes off. That was the case in the third-place game Saturday afternoon as Shoshoni senior Oakley Hicks fired in 33 points, nearly matching the entire output of the Rocky Mountain team. Hicks came into the tournament with an 8.5 ppg scoring average, hitting three of 36 three-point attempts (8 percent), and he made three more treys in the first three games of the tourney, Winland said. But Hicks hit six treys against the Grizz, matching his season total.

“I want to give credit to that kid, to Oakley Hicks,” Winland said. “He had a game, and I told the kids that I hope it happens to them in their life and their basketball career. One was an almost half-court shot, and the other one was from 20-23 feet. And you just tip your cap.

“On the other end, we just couldn’t get a basket, and when we would make a run, he would come down and hit a shot.”

A jumper in the lane by Winland and a trey by Jaxx May gave the Grizzlies an early 9-5 lead, but the rest of the game was all Wranglers, who led 14-9 after one, 32-16 at halftime, 42-26 after three and 53-38 at the end. Shoshoni shot 45.5 percent from three-point range, hitting 10 of 22 bombs.

May led the team with 12 points, and Winland added 11 points. Moss tallied 9 points and four rebounds, Hayes 6 points, Clendenen five rebounds and Jackson four caroms.

State tournament

The win over Big Piney clinched a state tournament berth for the Grizzlies (12-15), who will head to Casper as the fourth seed out of the 2A West. That status places them in an 8 p.m. game Thursday against the top seed from the East 2A, Pine Bluffs, at Casper College.

Fourth-ranked Pine Bluffs comes in 19-6 after winning the 2A East Regional with a 52-42 win over Big Horn. The Hornets are led by senior Carsten Freeburg at 20 points per game and junior Colby Lerwick at 12.5 ppg.

“They like to shoot the three-pointer. They’ve shot the most in 2A, 498 threes,” Winland said. They’re athletic. We don’t match up with them very well, as far as playing man to man.”

If the Grizzlies pull the upset, they will play the winner of the Wyoming Indian-Wright game at 8 p.m. Friday at the Ford Wyoming Center. If the Grizz fall to Pine Bluffs, they will meet the WIHS-Wright loser at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the FWC.