Late-season surge continues for Buffs
Rodriguez nets 27 in win over Rebels
The Greybull Buffs inched a game closer to the .500 mark and earned another year’s worth of bragging rights over their rivals to the south with a 57-45 win over Riverside Thursday night in Basin.
A fast start was key as the Buffs built leads of 17-10 after one and 28-16 at the half en route to the 12-point win in their only game of last week. Winners of five of their last six, they now sport a record of 7-10.
“We had a couple of bad stretches that cost us a little bit, but I was still happy to get a win at Riverside,” said Coach Logan Burningham. “It’s always a tough place to play.”
The coach said he loved the intensity of his team in the early stages. He isn’t sure what prompted the inspired play — perhaps retribution for what happened on the football field or some other “beef” — but he›d like to bottle it and send a case to Riverton, site of the upcoming Class 2A West Regional.
Seniors Carlos Rodriguez and Coby Henderson combined for 43 of Greybull’s 57 points, with Rodriguez posting a line of 27 points, seven boards and seven steals while Henderson contributed 16 to the cause.
“The last two or three weeks, those two have been really solid for us,” said Burningham. “But we still need a couple more role players to step up; our guards played well, but our posts didn’t and we need at least one of them contributing.”
This week
The regular season is winding down with just two weekends remaining. The Buffs are scheduled to play five games, three of them against conference opponents starting with a road game at Rocky Mountain Friday followed by a home clash with Wind River Saturday.
The Buffs lead the league with a 3-0 record, but none of those wins came easily. In fact, their margins of victory were two, six and seven points, respectively, at Wind River, at Shoshoni and home versus Rocky Mountain.
A top seed for the Class 2A West Regional is within reach if the Buffs keep knocking down conference foes. But Burningham isn’t looking past Rocky Mountain, calling it one of the toughest games on his team’s slate.
“Playing a road conference game in Cowley, I don’t know what it is but it’s hard to get road wins there,” he said. “If we can get that one, I think it’ll be easier to get the remaining ones.”
Riverside 10 6 19 10 — 45
Greybull 17 11 15 14 — 57
GREYBULL — Caden Hunt 2-10 2-2 7, Jesus Rodriguez 0-2 0-0 0, Juan Acuna 3-5 0-1 6, Coby Henderson 6-10 3-4 16, Isaac Vigil 0-0 1-2 1, Christian Nelson 0-1 0-0 0, Yandel Hernandez 0-4 0-0 0, Carlos Rodriguez 12-17 3-4 27. Totals 23-of-49 9-of-13 57.
3-POINT GOALS — Hunt, Henderson. REBOUNDS — Greybull 19 (Rodriguez 7). STEALS — Greybull 12 (Rodriguez 7). ASSISTS — Greybull 15 (Acuna 5). TURNOVERS — Greybull 8.