Tigers to State

The Encampment Tigers are heading to the State Championship in Casper following a successful weekend at the 1A West Regional Tournament in Lander where they were able to defeat the No. 4 Northwest Dubois Rams and the No. 3 Southwest Cokeville Panthers before falling to the No. 2 Southwest Farson-Eden Pronghorns in the Championship Round.

Heading into the regional tournament, the Tigers were ranked No. 1 in the 1A Southwest Conference following an intense regular season that saw the rankings change on a near weekly basis.

Encampment vs. Dubois

The first game of the weekend for Encampment was against the Dubois Rams (4-20, 1-8) and the only time the two teams met was in the pre-season at the Carbon County Invite on Dec. 8 in Encampment. During that game, the Tigers defeated Dubois with a score of 71-15.

When Encampment played the Rams on Thursday night, Dubois was able to keep the score a little closer, but would still fall to the Tigers with a final score of 90-54.

Junior Dayne Anderson led Encampment against the Rams with 26 points and 5 rebounds and senior Kyler Miller followed with 21 points and 9 rebounds. Sophomore Dalton Peterson, meanwhile, scored 13 points and had 6 assists and 5 rebounds while junior Reid Schroeder scored 9 points and had 8 assists.Along with the win against Dubois, a video shot by Valley resident Byron Barkhurst, which was shared on the Saratoga Sun Facebook page, showed a moment of good sportsmanship by the Tigers. In the final seconds of the game, a Dubois student athlete with Down syndrome was handed the ball by his teammates before attempting a shot.

In the first shot attempt, Koye Gilbert rebounded to the Dubois athlete. Caysen Barkhurst rebounded the second shot attempt and Justin "JD" Shaw rebounded the third attempt. The fourth attempt was rebounded by Dubois' own Mason Slider and No. 43 shot just as the buzzer sounded.

Encampment vs. Cokeville

In the past, Cokeville has been one of the more difficult teams for the Valley teams to face in the conference. This year, the Tigers were successful against the orange and black Panthers both times they met, first in Tiger Nation with a score of 60-56 and again in Cokeville with a score of 56-52.

During the 1A West Regional Tournament, the Tigers were able to celebrate a third victory against their conference rivals on Friday with a final score of 66-58.

Schroeder led the Tigers against Cokeville with 19 points and 7 assists, followed by Peterson with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Anderson scored 14 points and had 5 rebounds and Miller scored 12 points.

The victory against the Panthers put Cokeville in the Consolation semifinals while Encampment advanced to the Championship round, where they faced another conference foe; Farson-Eden.

Encampment vs.

Farson-Eden

Throughout the season, the Tigers and the Pronghorns vied for the No. 1 position in the 1A Southwest Conference. Going into regionals, Encampment was 1-1 with Farson-Eden following a loss of 50-55 on Jan. 19 on their homecourt and a win of 67-57 on the Pronghorn's homecourt.

When they met on Saturday, Farson-Eden would deal the Tigers another loss with a final score of 44-54 and put Encampment in the No. 2 position for the 1A West.

Anderson scored 14 points against the Pronghorns, Miller scored 10 points and Peterson score 8 points and had 7 assists and 9 rebounds.

With the regional tournament finished, the Tigers will head to the 1A State Championship in Casper as the No. 2 West team and face the No. 3 East Hanna, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow Miners at noon on Thursday at the Casper Events Center.