HEM basketball digs in

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School hosted the Carbon County Invite for girls and boys basketball on Dec. 13-14.

St. Stephens

The first game at 1 p.m. was the Lady Miners against St. Stephens. The Lady Miners got off to a great start, leading 12-0. Head coach Jackie Jones started rotating in girls from the bench. St. Stephens scored their first point with 30 seconds left in the first quarter. At halftime the Lady Miners were up 30-11. It didn't get better for the Lady Eagles, although they got closer as they lost the game 45-36.

The boys were up next against the Eagles. The Miners scored first and went on a an 8-0 run. Then the Eagles went on a tear going ahead 8-9. In the first quarter the lead changed several times. The second quarter had the Eagles getting more shots in and, by halftime, St. Stephens went into the locker 25-33.

The Miners didn't have a great third quarter. Soon it was 25-40 and the Eagles looked to be putting the Miners away. Going into the fourth quarter, the Miners were down 29-44. With five minutes left the Miners needed 16 points. HEM dug deep and started scoring and with 9 seconds left, the game was tied. The Eagles were not to be denied. They hit their basket with 4.5 seconds left. The Miners had almost done it, but they lost their first game. The score ended 58-60.

Hayden

The Lady Miners had a much stronger battle on their hand with Hayden, the team from Colorado. Going into the second quarter, HEM was ahead 15-11. By halftime it was 29-23. Hayden played hard and tied twice but, in the end, HEM outlasted the Lady Tigers 40-37.

For the Miners, the Tigers were not easy either. The Miners led in the first half but Hayden did take the lead going into the fourth quarter. It was not for long. HEM ended up winning 54-50.

Meeteetse

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, the boys went first and started with the Meeteetse Longhorns . It was total domination by the Miners, although in the beginning both teams were cold. It didn't stay that way. Before Cliff Jones started rotating players, the score was 39-9. The Miners won 54-31.

The Lady Miners didn't score as much as they usually do. The end of the first quarter had the Lady Longhorns ahead 3-6. At halftime the Lady Miners were ahead 12-6. The second half stayed low scoring with the Lady Miners winning 28-17.

Dubois

The Miners crushed their last opponent, Dubois. First quarter was 15-2 and at halftime it was 31-13. Their coach started rotating players in the second half to give his bench a chance to play. The score ended 61-36.

Ft. Washakie

The Lady Miners easily took apart the Lady Chiefs in the last game. At halftime HEM was ahead 26-12. The second half Jackie got to play all members of her team. The Lady Miners won 51-20.

The Coaches Speak

Jackie said her team had four co-captains in Amy and Madison Campbell, Taylar Scott and Rainey Wilson. She was proud of what they accomplished.

"Some people have said that is too many captains, but they split duties for the team and they all deserve the role," Jackie said. "Our fifth starter, Hannah Christie, is doing a phenomenal job on defense."

Jackie said in the St. Stephens game she could give Jolynn Borah, Hanna Gonzales, Jaque Nelson and T'lyssa Solaas more opportunity to play. The coach was very pleased with Jorja Waxweiler's time on court. Jackie was happy with the all the girls efforts in the games.

"We just have some fine tuning to do," Jackie said. "But what the girls accomplished this weekend was just awesome."

Cliff said the Miners were bringing back eight of the nine players that were in rotation last year.

"We have three brothers that just moved here and they are good basketball players," Cliff said. "But they have to earn their time and they are pushing some of the established kids, which is nice."

He said the loss to St. Stephens was because the Miners didn't play their game for a few quarters. When they did start playing their game, they almost won.

"We let them play their game and it showed when we only scored 4 points in the third quarter," Cliff said. "When we went back to our style, we almost won."

With Hayden, he said that team rebounded well. He said that would be something he wanted to address in the coming games.

His talks must have worked as demonstrated by the games on Saturday.

"Today we played better because we played good defense." Cliff said. "Good things are going to happen this season if we push ourselves and practice hard."