Injury, attitude buries Miners

Friday, the Encampment Tigers came to Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School and walked away with a 47-71 victory.

The score does not indicate how close the game was in the first half.

"We had a 4-point deficit at halftime and then let the game get away from us in the third quarter," Cliff Jones, head boys basketball coach said. "Injuries, attitudes, and foul trouble all played a role in us getting outscored by 18 in that quarter."

The injury Jones referred to is Shane McGraw, who hurt his ankle towards the end of the first half. Shane was number eight in the state for scoring coming into the game. He tried to come back in the second half and even scored in the opening seconds, but had leave after scoring those points.

Jones did not blame losing Shane to injury as the reason for the loss though.

"The main cause for the collapse was that Encampment simply outworked us. Jake Johnston is doing an outstanding job with those guys," Jones said. "They play hard, are pretty disciplined and do a lot of things very well."

There were bright spots from the HEM players.

Shane's brother Conor ended up being the leading scorer for the Miners with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Brendon Reeves chipped in 19 points.

Jones had praise for a player who hasn't seen a lot of court time compared to others.

"I was especially pleased with the play of Kyle Solaas," Jones said. "He is our only senior and hasn't played a lot of minutes this year."

Solaas put his time in this game doing his best to keep the Miners in it along with Conor and Reeves.

"He really worked hard and did some nice things for us and he has the right type of attitude and demeanor when he is on the floor and I really appreciate the way he represents himself and our team," Jones said. "Chances are, he has earned himself some additional playing time because of that."

Basil Phillips played some great defense, but he and the Miner team found it difficult to catchthe Tigers once they got so far ahead in the third quarter.

"We played well at times and then not so well at others," Jones said. "I thought we played well in the first half but we are going to have to be able to put four quarters together in order to reach some of our goals as the end of the season nears."

Jones knows his team is capable of doing well. They have an 8-5 record, but to do well in the regionals, the team will have to do better when they come up against a strong team like Encampment.

"We get another shot at them in a couple of weeks and we will use that as measuring stick before we head off to the regional tournament," Jones said.

The Miners next game is at 1 p.m. on Feb. 3 at HEM facing the Rock River Longhorns who they defeated back on Jan. 19.