GHS boys beat Kaycee for lone tournament win

With three new starters and a short bench, the Greybull Buffs struggled to play consistent basketball at their opening tournament of the season, going 1-3 at the Coal Miner’s Classic in Wright and the Herder Classic in Glenrock.
The Buffs defeated 1A Kaycee 49-35 in their second game Friday, but lost their opener to Wright 75-49 and their Saturday games to 3A Glenrock 54-45 and Lusk 65-46 in what was described as “a rough weekend” by Coach Logan Burningham.
“It didn’t go as well as we’d hoped, but (assistant coach) James (Armel) and I have been talking and we need to be patient with these kids.  We don’t have a lot of varsity experience and a lot of these kids haven’t had much of an opportunity to play basketball.
“It’s not something that’s going to happen in two weeks ... it’s going to take a little longer than that.”
Of the four teams that Greybull saw, Wright was the most highly regarded, and even though 26 points separated them at the final horn, Burningham said it may have been his team’s best performance of the weekend.
“Wright’s a top-two team in the state — they’re 10 deep with a lot of size and height and good basketball IQs, and when you put those things together, you have a solid team,” said Burningham. “But I thought we executed well.  It was a five-point game in the third quarter.  Our shot selection was good.  We missed a lot of bunnies around the hoop, though. Hopefully as the season goes on and we get more practice time, we’ll make those shots.
“But our effort and energy were good, and I thought it was a performance we could build on.”  
The Buffs led at every quarter stop in their win over Kaycee later in the day, getting 21 from Rodriguez and 11 from Henderson. But they faded in Saturday’s losses to Glenrock and Lusk, trailing at every quarter stop in both contests.
Fatigue was a factor, said Burningham, who rode his starting five — Henderson and Rodriguez plus seniors Juan Acuna and Jesus Rodriguez and sophomore Caden Hunt — pretty heavily across the four games.
“As the tournament went on, playing so much basketball, we definitely wore down a little,” he said.
Henderson led the Buffs in scoring in the Wright game, tallying 22.  But Rodriguez paced the team in the other three games, including a 25-point performance against Glenrock in which he missed only one shot. He was 7-of-8 from the field, 8-of-8 from the line.
Looking at the weekend as a whole, Burningham cited ballhandling, handling pressure defense and rebounding as his biggest concerns. “We got destroyed on the boards all weekend,” he said. “We weren’t boxing out and were getting outworked.  We were better on the offensive end than on the defensive end, where we gave up way too many second shots.”
This weekend, the Buffs head to the Foothills Classic, which is being hosted by Tongue River and Big Horn high schools.   All four of Greybull’s games will be in Dayton.  On Friday, the Buffs face Big Piney at 1:30 p.m. and Tongue River at 4:30 p.m.  On Saturday, they have dates with Wyoming Indian at 9:30 a.m. and Wright at 3:30 p.m.  Cumulatively those four teams went 11-4 in week one.
“We’re going to have to play top-notch basketball to stay in those games,” said Burningham.
He’s emphasizing the big picture, likening these December games to building blocks for the conference games that begin in January.  And none of the 2A Northwest teams excelled in week one, as Greybull, Rocky Mountain, Shoshoni and Wind River went a combined 2-12.

Wright        21 12 22 20 — 75
Greybull          9 14 16 10 — 49
GREYBULL — Caden Hunt 0-4 0-0 0, Jesus Rodriguez 2-6 1-2 6, Brandon Burns 0-2 0-0 0, Juan Acuna 0-3 0-0 0, Coby Henderson 6-18 8-13 22, Larry Longshore 0-0 2-2 2, Isaac Vigil 1-4 0-0 2, Yandel Hernandez 0-0 0-1 0, Cole Wisehart 0-1 0-0 0, Carlos Rodriguez 5-16 3-6 14, Carter Jacobs 1-1 0-0 2, Lucas Bolzer 0-0 1-2 1.  Totals 15-54 15-26 49.
3-POINT GOALS — Henderson 2, J Rodriguez, Rodriguez.  REBOUNDS — Greybull 29 (Rodriguez 12).  STEALS — Greybull 9 (Henderson 5).  ASSISTS — Greybull 6 (J. Rodriguez 3).  TURNOVERS — Greybull 19.
Kaycee          9 11 5 10 — 35
Greybull        13 14 15 7 — 49
GREYBULL  — Hunt 2-12 0-2 5, J. Rodriguez 2-5 1-4 5, Acuna 1-2 0-0 3, Henderson 3-16 2-2 11, Vigil 2-4 0-0 4, Rodriguez 7-20 6-7 21.   Totals 17-59 9-15 49.
3-POINT GOALS — Henderson 3, Hunt, Acuna, Rodriguez;  REBOUNDS — Greybull 40 (Rodriguez 13).  STEALS — Greybull 10 (Hunt 3).  ASSISTS — Greybull 8  (Acuna 3).  TURNOVERS — Greybull 12.
Glenrock        11 14 10 19 — 54
Greybull          9 12   9 15 — 45
GREYBULL — Hunt 1-6 2-2 5, J. Rodriguez 2-7 2-3 6, Acuna 0-3 0-0 0, Henderson 3-18 0-0 7, Vigil 1-5 0-0 2, Rodriguez 7-8 8-8 25.  Totals 14-44 12-13 45.
3-POINT GOALS — Rodriguez 3, Henderson, Hunt.  REBOUNDS — Greybull 21 (Rodriguez 9).  STEALS  — Greybull 11 (Hunt, Rodriguez 3).  ASSISTS — Greybull 7 (Acuna, Henderson 3).  TURNOVERS — Greybull 17.
Lusk        14 17 13 21 — 65
Greybull          7 14 15 10 — 46
GREYBULL — Hunt 0-4 0-0 0, J. Rodriguez 1-2 0-2 2, Acuna 0-2 1-2 1, Henderson 5-14 2-2 15, Vigil 0-3 0-2 0, Hernandez 1-2 0-0 2, Rodriguez 10-21 6-7 26.  Totals 17-48 9-15 46.
3-POINT GOALS — Henderson 3.  REBOUNDS — Greybull 36 (Rodriguez 16).  STEALS — Greybull 10 (Henderson 3).  ASSISTS — Greybull 3.  TURNOVERS — Greybull 30.