Girls hope momentum carries over to regional

By Marlys Good

The Greybull Lady Buffs are heading to the Class 2A West Regional in Riverton this weekend where they are seeded third from the Northwest after beating the Lady Blue of Shoshoni for the second time during the regular season. 

The third seed puts them on the opposite side of the bracket of Wyoming Indian. The Buffs open regional play Thursday facing the Kemmerer Rangers.  Coach Jeff Hunt said they haven’t seen Kemmerer this season, “but I think they match pretty close to us.”

The Buffs are coming off a 2-1 weekend record. They beat the highly-regarded Burlington Lady Huskies Thursday, 40-36;  hosted the Lady Blue of Shoshoni Friday and defeated them for the second time in conference play, 33-20, and lost a thriller to Big Horn Saturday  42-41.

Coach Hunt said, “We are looking to take this momentum into the regional tournament this weekend.”

The victory over the Lady Huskies Thursday came against a 1A team, but it’s a team that is deep, talented and highly ranked in the 1A class. Hunt said his game plan going in “was to slow them down and make them play at a pace they don’t like. We did a great job controlling the tempo and making them shoot from the perimeter. We knew we had to win the rebound battle to win this game and we did an outstanding job.”

The Huskies, Hunt said, “like to put up a lot of quick shots and do a great job at second-chance points.” But the Buffs were up to the challenge. Hunt said his team was credited with 29 defensive boards and gave up just nine second-chance points.  “This was definitely the difference in the ballgame,” he said.

Hunt praised freshman Perla Rodriguez for doing “an outstanding job” rebounding; she ended the game with 17 rebounds. Kennedy Craft was the team’s “go-to” on offense and the senior ended the game scoring 22  of the Buffs’ 40 points.

It was a different type of game Friday night.  Shoshoni,  according to Coach Hunt, plays tough defense “and we had a difficult time scoring. We were out of sync.”

Countering this, the Lady Buffs put a lot of pressure on the Shoshoni guards  “They had to shoot a lot more threes than they are used to,” Hunt said. “We did a good job with our press and forced a lot of turnovers early in this game.”  The Buffs gave up just eight points in the first three quarters of play.

The Buffs would have loved to make it a three-for-three weekend, but those hopes were dashed at Big Horn as the Lady Rams out-lasted Greybull and won by a margin of one point, 42-41. 

“We were ready to play in this game,” Hunt said. Mataia Henderson caught fire and put up four 3-pointers in the first half to give her team a 14-point (25-11) edge going into the locker room.  Unfortunately, the second half didn’t go as smoothly. Several quick fouls sent the Lady Rams to the charity stripe. Hunt pointed out that 19 of the Rams’ second-half points came from the line.

“Defensively the Lady Rams put on the press and it was very effective,” Hunt said. “We threw the ball away too many times. We had a few chances to put them away in the fourth quarter but we just couldn’t capitalize on them.”   

However, winning two out of three made it the team’s most successful weekend of this season.

Hunt said he hopes that momentum carries over to their game against Kemmerer on Thursday.

GHS 7 13 10 10 — 40

BHS 6 10 13   6 — 36

GREYBULL — Jasmine Rodriguez 2-5 0-0 4, Mataia Henderson 0-4 1-4 1, Chaise Benasky 0-4 0-0 0, Marlee Henson 1-1 1=2 3, Sarah Murph 0-1 0-0 0, Perla Rodriguez 2-4 1-5 5, Kennedy Craft 8-17 3-8 22.  Ashley Gomez 1-1 0-0 2.  Totals 14-of-37 9-of-25 40.

3-POINT GOALS — Craft 3; REBOUNDS — Greybull 39 (Rodriguez 17);  STEALS — Greybull 13 (Henderson 3);   ASSISTS — Greybull 7 (Chapman 3);  TURNOVERS — Greybull 38.

Greybull 5 10 9   9 — 33

Shoshoni 2   4 2 12 — 20

GREYBULL — Chapman 1-4 0-0 2, Henderson 1-7 0-0 3, Angie Atilano 1-2 0-0 2, Shayne Cheatham 0-1 0-0 0, Benasky 0-2 0-0 0, Sherlyn Diaz-Rios 1-1 0-0 2, Henson 3-6 0-0 7, Sarah Murph 0-1 0-0 0, Rodriguez 1-4 0-0 2, Craft 4-13 0-0 9, Gomez 2-5 2-3 6.  Totals 14-of-46 2-of-3 33.

3-POINT GOALS — Henson, Henderson, Craft; REBOUNDS — Greybull 31 (Craft 8);  STEALS — Greybull 20 (Craft 4);   ASSISTS — Greybull 8 (Henderson 2);  TURNOVERS — Greybull 15

Greybull 8 17   5 11 — 41

Big Horn 8   3 14 17 — 42

GREYBULL — Chapman 0-3 0-0 0, Henderson 4-15 2-24 14, Benasky 0-2 0-0 0, Henson 0-1 0-0 0, Rodriguez 4-6 0-0 8, Craft 5-8 2-5 13, Camila Acuna 3-5 0-0 6.  Totals 16-of-44 4-of-11 41.

3-POINT GOALS — Henderson 4, Craft; REBOUNDS — Greybull 37 (Craft 8);  STEALS — Greybull 19 (Henderson 4);   ASSISTS — Greybull 8 (Chapman 3);  TURNOVERS — Greybull