Encampment junior high girls head into tourney undefeated

On Saturday, the Carbon County tournament for Junior High School basketball takes place in Saratoga.

Saratoga, Encampment, Little Snake River Valley and Hanna-Elk Mountain-Medicine Bow (HEM) and Wamsutter will vie for the top spot in junior high basketball.

The Encampment girls are going into this Saturdays game undefeated.

With power players like eight grader Noelle Peterson averaging 15 points a game, and fellow eighth grader Paige Powell averaging 13 points a game, the tournament is sure to be an interesting one.

Other teams in the five school bracket have not even come close to winning against Encampment.

The Saratoga A team is coming into the tournament as the No. 2 seed. Saratoga has lost only four games in the season, two of those were against Encampment.

The other two games were against Walden and Rawlins. Neither of those teams have been invited to the tournament.

The losses against Encampment have been significant for the Saratoga Panthers, the first game on Jan. 9, the Panthers lost 15-38. In the second game, the loss was 24-53 on Jan. 24.

Last year, the Encampment Tigers placed second in the Junior High Conference Tournament and Little Snake River coming in first place.

As the Encampment team prepares for the tournament, they have the stats to back them up.

In the game against Walden on Jan. 30, the Encampment A team won 30-27 with Peterson scoring 14 points and Paige Powell 10. Lauren Buford scored 4 points with Riley Little earning 2.

On Jan. 31 against HEM, Peterson had 21 points and Powell had 16. Buford scored 3, with Little putting up 2.

In the Feb. 6 Wamsutter game, Peterson had 9 points and Powell 10 points. Mikaya Johnson, Little each had 4 points, with Kamry Knotwell scoring 3 points. Lexi Herring, Eber Yeary, Grace Schwenke and Morgan Dale all put up 2 points each in the 39-27 win. Taylor Huntley contributed 1 point.

Encampment defanged the Little Snake River Rattlers on Feb. 7 with a 44-16 win.

Peterson lead the scoring with 18 points, following by Powell at 16. Buford scored 4 points, and Morgan Dale, Katie Russell and Little all added 2 points each.

On Thursday, Encampment outscored Walden 32-24 with Powell leading with 14 points. Peterson had 12 points, Buford and Dale had 2 each and Johnson and Little added 1 point each.

On Saturday, the Encampment girls had a sweetheart of a win to finish out their undefeated regular season 36-24. Peterson once again led with 14 points, Powell had 11, Huntley 3 points and Buford, Schwenke and Little each had 2 points. Johnson has 1 point.

The Junior High Conference Tournament begins at 9 a.m. with No. 3 Little Snake River going up against No. 6 Saratoga “B” team.