Harsh hardwood away from home

After a very successful homecoming week, the Encampment Tigers hit the road for games against conference rivals Cokeville and Farson-Eden over the weekend. Unfortunately, the streak the teams had during homecoming last week did not carry through to the important conference games.

At the beginning of the season, Clint Bromley, Encampment School’s athletic director and coach of the girls’ team told the Saratoga Sun that the Tigers would be facing a strong conference, saying that several of the best teams in the state were in the Tigers’ division. His words proved prophetic after the Encampment boys gave up losses to two conference teams over the weekend, and the Lady Tigers gave up one loss.

The losses over the weekend have given the encampment boys a conference record of 0-2 and an overall record of 7-5. The girls team came out of the weekend with a 1-1 conference record and held out at 9-3 overall.

Friday, the teams traveled to Cokeville to face off against the Panthers. Despite coming off the week previous buoyed by a streak of wins during the teams’ three games, the Tigers found themselves on the losing end of the match, eventually going home with a 73-48 loss, with one Cokeville Panther scoring 33 points alone during the game.

In Cokeville, the Encampment girls had a better go of things, taking the game to the Panthers and besting them by 10 points, putting the game in the W column with a score of 55-45, earning the Lady Tigers a much-needed conference win.

Saturday saw the team on the road again, this time visiting Farson-Eden High School in Sweetwater County. The boys needed that conference win and fought hard to earn it, but ultimately the boys came up short by a disappointing one point, losing the game 62-61. This sent the boys home with no conference wins during their first week of conference play.

The girls rolled into Farson-Eden to take on the Lady Pronghorns hoping to keep their streak rolling, but like the boys, they learned how predictive Bromley’s words were. The girls gave up a loss to Farson-Eden, 51-33, ending their streak and relegating them, so far, to a conference record of 1-1.

The Tigers faced the North Park Wildcats 4 p.m. Tuesday, after press time for the Saratoga Sun. Their next outing will be a face off between Valley and conference rivals Encampment Tigers and the Saratoga Panthers, 4 p.m. Jan. 20 at Encampment High School.