Regional champions: Lady Grizz win three at 2A West including overtime thriller

They did it again. The Rocky Mountain Lady Grizzlies swept through the 2A West Regional Tournament last week in Riverton to capture the regional title – the program’s third in four years.

Going in as the top seed from the northwest, the Lady Grizz topped Kemmerer Thursday, 31-22, Big Piney Friday, 45-26, and Thermopolis for the championship Saturday in overtime, 63-58.

“There’s still room for improvement, but we did a good job taking care of the ball, rebounding and playing great defense,” coach Justin Moss said. “That’s what we’ve been hanging our hat on.

“To win in three different styles is a testament to our team.”

The first game was a rugged, defensive battle, and Moss knew it was coming.

“It was very physical. We knew that was the style they play,” he said. “You look at their scores, and they didn’t win very many games, but they were very low scoring – slugfest games. That’s what they play.

“I worried about that game more than any game in the tournament. They’re also deliberate. They make eight to 10 passes before they shoot. And they’re physical on defense.”

Points were hard to come by, especially in the first half. Rocky led 2-1 after the first quarter, and the Lady Grizz didn’t score until eight seconds left in the quarter when junior Lauren Bassett hit an inside bank shot in the key.

The game remained close in the second quarter, and Rocky clung to a two-point lead, 9-7, until three-pointers by junior Keylee Christiansen and sophomore Kaysie Cooley boosted the Rocky lead to eight points at halftime, 15-7.

The two teams mostly traded baskets in the second half, though Rocky remained in control of the game. Rocky led 23-14 after three, and each team scored eight points in the fourth. The Lady Rangers could get no closer than five points behind – 27-22 at one point.

Cooley finished with 10 points, Bassett 9, Shelby Wambeke 6, Christiansen 3, Halle Grandalen 2 and Sharlotte Hanusa 1. Rocky shot just 24 percent from the field in the game.

Bassett led the team with four rebounds, and Christiansen and Wambeke had four steals apiece.

Big Piney

The Lady Grizz were able to generate much more offense in their semifinal win over Big Piney Friday afternoon, but they again played strong defense, winning 45-26. Big Piney was game, coming off a 46-41 win over Greybull on Thursday, and the Punchers led 9-6 after the first quarter.

“Big Piney is really athletic, and if you were in a track meet, they’d run circles around everyone in the state,” Moss said. “They’re really good athletes and are quick. We really needed to stay in front of them. Micah Strong is going to run track for Montana State. She’s a very good athlete.”

Though they trailed by three after the first quarter, the Lady Grizz got rolling in the final three quarters, outscoring Big Piney 16-6, 10-6 and 13-5. Cooley sparked the team, hitting a pair of treys in the second quarter to boost the score, helping the Lady Grizz lead 22-15 at halftime, then opening the third quarter with back-to-back bombs to put Rocky up 28-15.

Big Piney closed the gap to seven points, 28-21, before a baseline jumper by Christiansen and two free throws by Wambeke left Rocky up 32-21 after three.

An early fourth-quarter Big Piney trey cut the margin to eight, 32-24, but the Lady Grizz dominated the rest of the quarter, scoring 13 straight points to lead 45-24 before a final bucket by the Punchers made the final score 45-26.

Big Piney only hit four baskets in the second half as Rocky Mountain pulled away.

“We really wanted to stay in front of them and make them beat us from the outside,” Moss said. “They have a lot of drivers.”

Cooley led the Grizz in scoring again with 12 points, and Bassett added 9, Wambeke and Brittly Boettcher 6 each, Christiansen and Grandalen 4 each, Hanusa and Tarynn Schoening 2 apiece. Schoening snared six rebounds, Christiansen five, Boettcher and Bassett four apiece.

Thermopolis

The championship game Saturday was a battle from start to finish. The two teams had split during the regular season and knew what each other wanted to do in game three. The Lady Bobcats were red hot, knocking down nine three-pointers, but the Lady Grizz prevailed in overtime in a gritty performance.

Depth paid off for the Lady Grizz as they played through some foul trouble.

“They got Lauren (Bassett) in foul trouble, and she only played 17 minutes, her lowest total of the year,” Moss said. “That enabled the other girls to step up and carry the load a little bit.”

Thermop employed a strategy of preventing the Lady Grizzlies from shooting threes while taking plenty themselves.

“Their style of defense allowed us to attack. They wanted to run us off the three-point line. They pressured us and got out on our three-point shooters. We took five three-pointers, and they took 30. I was proud of our girls for playing downhill and attacking.”

Rocky took an early 9-5 lead on a Boettcher drive, a power bank shot by Bassett, two free throws by Wambeke and a three-pointer by Schoening, but Thermop countered with three consecutive treys, two by sharpshooter Jayssie Owsley, to lead 14-9. Rocky fought back with a 7-0 run to lead 16-14 after the first quarter.

The lead see-sawed back and forth in the second quarter until a late 5-2 mini-run left Rocky up 29-28 at halftime. Thermop hit six treys in the first half, four of them in the first quarter.

“Early, we didn’t rotate well, but later we did a better job of getting to those shooters,” Moss said. “They knocked ‘em down. That’s the best I’ve seen 10 (Owsley) play. She scored 27 points.”

Thermop hit two treys in the third quarter, but Rocky led 37-36 at the quarter break. The Lady Grizz built a 46-39 lead in the fourth, but Bassett – the team’s leading scorer – fouled out with 3:46 to play. Rocky still led 50-43 with 2:24 left on a power move by Boettcher, but the Lady Grizz only scored three points – on 3-6 foul shooting – the rest of regulation, and Thermop was able to battle back and tie the score 53-53 as Owsley hit two clutch free throws with 0:00.2 on the clock.

Rocky took it to Thermopolis in overtime. After the Lady Bobcats hit a free throw to start the extra period, the Lady Grizz scored 10 straight points to lead 63-54, hitting six of eight free throws in the process, before Thermop scored four late points.

“That’s the best I’ve seen us play in transition,” Moss said. “At the beginning of the year we worked on our transition game, and now we can attack when we should attack and pull it out when we shouldn’t. We did a great job of that.

“We wanted to have pace in that game, and our depth was evident, even with Lauren out. I intentionally didn’t call timeouts when I usually do, because I knew they were gassed and we had more in the tank with our rotations. That was a battle of two good teams.”

Wambeke led the team with 17 points, hitting 11 of 14 shots at the free-throw line. Boettcher added 16 points on seven-of-11 shooting from the field, Christiansen 12 on four-of-six shooting. Rocky shot a remarkable 50 percent from the field in the game and converted 22 of 34 free throws.

Grandalen and Bassett scored 6 points each, Schoening 4 and Cooley 2. Grandalen grabbed nine rebounds, Boettcher six and Schoening, Christiansen and Bassett five apiece. Wambeke led with four assists and three steals.

State tournament

The Lady Grizz will open the Class 2A State Tournament this morning (Thursday) at 10:30 a.m. at Casper College, taking on fourth seeded (East) Wright. Rocky beat Wright 63-38 in the first tournament of the season, but Moss said both teams have changed since then. He pointed out that Boettcher missed the tournament while nursing an injury from volleyball season.

“They have three guards who pack most of the weight for them, and they have a 1,000-point scorer in Briana Meza, who scores 13.4 points per game,” Moss said. “She attacks and is a good player. Dani Barnhurst is solid.”

If the Lady Grizz win, they will play the winner of the opening Wyoming Indian-Pine Bluffs game Friday at 4 p.m. at the Ford Wyoming Center. The Lady Grizz beat Wyoming Indian 48-35 on February 8, and while they haven’t seen Pine Bluffs, Moss said the Hornets have three “six-footers” including a girl who plays guard. The Hornets will be physical, he said.

Wyoming Indian placed third at the regional tournament with a 58-52 win over Big Piney Saturday, and Pine Bluffs fell to Tongue River 53-41 in the East Regional title game to place second.

“I love our grit and our toughness,” Moss said. “Every locker room we go into – all of them – emphasize effort (on the white board). We don’t have to talk about effort. They bring it every game.”