Lady Miners take two 'W's

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners played one game this weekend due to Dubois forfeiting their game on Friday. The Lady Miners won against Rock River on Saturday 47-32.

"We were able to jump out to a pretty good lead to start the game 11-0," Head HEM girls basketball coach said. "You know in all fairness, it might have caught both teams off guard."

She acknowledged the Lady Longhorns were missing a starter for this game.

"There is absolutely no question them losing Taylor Broyles made a difference and when she returns, the Lady Longhorns will be another team than what we saw today," Jones said. "I talked to Taylor before the game and it sounds like she will be back next week."

She said Lady Longhorn player Lydia Moore was a true post player that played hard and Lady Longhorn Delaney Qualls was an exceptional outside shooter.

"In practice, we knew who their go to players were, so we prepared," Jones said. "We really tailored our practices to shutting down those players."

Unfortunately for the Lady Longhorns, Qualls went down due to an injury just before the second half. The score was 28-18.

"You never want to see a player get an injury," Jones said. "It was very unfortunate."

The already depleted team now had just four players to face the Lady Miners in the second half and it did not go well for them.

"I made the decision to spread it out and go into four corners and then they had another player foul out and I made the decision to keep five players, but I put in JV," Jones said. "I wanted them to have experience against a quality player like Lydia."

She said the only Lady Miners to score were freshmen after the Longhorns went to three players.

"It was a different situation and I think all ten of my girls handled the situation with class," Jones said.

A highlight of the game was that Lady Miner Madison Campbell scored 17 points, five of which were 3-pointers. She was the Lady Miners leading scorer against Rock River.

"She tied the school record," Jones said. "Taylor Scott and Amy Campbell played well also."

Jones said although she emphasized with Rock River being down players, she felt the Lady Miners played well from the beginning and was pleased with what she saw.

The Lady Miners are 9-2 overall and 2-0 in conference.

The next scheduled game will have been played at 5 p.m. on Jan 29 against the Saratoga Lady Panthers.