Boys lead wire to wire in third straight win

The Greybull Buffs didn’t any last-second heroics to win their only contest of last week.

A week after their dramatic wins over Shoshoni and Tongue River, the Buffs turned in a workmanlike performance against Riverside, defeating their rivals to the south 56-45 Thursday night at Buff Gym.

Their third straight win didn’t come easily, but the Buffs did manage to outscore the Rebels in every quarter and shoot almost 37% from the field.

“I always get a little extra nervous going against Basin because it’s a rivalry game and because they play up against us like it’s for the state championship,” said Coach Logan Burningham. 

“The one takeaway from it was, we did enough to get a win, but it was a little frustrating because every time we got up double digits, we relaxed and never could push it further than a dozen points.  Our lead was eight to 12 points most of the night.  Against a quality opponent, we won’t be able to relax.  If we do, they’ll get back in it, catch us and maybe take the lead.”

Carter Jacobs paced the Buffs with 21 points, followed by Yandel Hernandez with 13.

Burningham said their efforts helped the Buffs overcome an off night by Caden Hunt, who was limited to seven after combining for 30 in the wins over Shoshoni and Tongue River. “We’ve been relying on how well he’s been playing, so to have Yandel step up and have his best night in a month was big for us.

“And on the defensive side, it always takes five contributing to produce a good stop, so to hold a team like Basin, which had been scoring very well, to 45 was a positive for us.”

The Buffs begin their second pass through the Class 2A Northwest Conference later this week with games at Rocky Mountain Friday at 7 p.m. and on their home floor against top-ranked Thermopolis Saturday at 3 p.m. 

The Buffs struggled in their first matchups with these teams, losing to the Grizzlies, 48-27, and the Bobcats, 60-31.  

Burningham wants to see a better effort against Rocky Mountain, saying his players came out flat, trailed by double digits at the half and never recovered.  “We can’t do that again. We have to give it everything we’ve got.  We’re a team that, if we get down early, we have a hard time getting back into it.  

“So we need everyone who has been playing well to play well again,  but we will also need others to step up because (Rocky ) is good about taking your primary scoring threat.”

Thermopolis is the No. 1 ranked team in 2A, so it won’t be easy to win Saturday’s contest at Buff Gym.  “The thing about them is, they’re deep,” Burningham said. “We had some good stretches against them (in the first meeting) where we’d stay even over four-minute stretches, but then we’d stop executing our stuff and they’d take advantage of it.”

Burningham said he wants Thermopolis scoring in the 40s or 50, not the 60s, 70s or 80s because “we just don’t have enough scoring to keep up with them.”

Riverside 10 13 11 11 - 45

Greybull 14 16 12 14 - 56

GREYBULL — Larry Longshore 2-5 0-0 4, Caden Hunt 2-12 2-3 7, Lucas Bolzer 0-1 2-2 2, Cole Wisehart 1-5 0-2 3, Isaac Vigil 1-9 0-0 2, Rex Cooper 1-3 2-2 4, Yandel Hernandez 6-7 1-4 13, Carter Jacobs 7-13 6-8 21.  Totals 20-of-55 (FGs) 13-of-21 (FTs) 56.

3-POINT GOALS — Hunt, Wisehart, Jacobs.  REBOUNDS — Greybull 33 (Vigil 7).  STEALS — Greybull 16 (Jacobs 5).  ASSISTS — Greybull 12 (Hunt 5).  TURNOVERS — Greybull 21.