Seeing the good moments

High winds and winter storms not only forced the closure of roads over the weekend, but also extended homecoming week for the Encampment Lady Tigers as they had to reschedule their game against the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers. Originally set for Saturday, Encampment hosted the Lady Rattlers on Monday evening. LSRV would ultimately leave Tiger Nation with a win.

"I definitely think that we were all pretty off our game. It definitely was a Monday," said junior Shiann Finney. "We're not used to playing on Mondays ... so that definitely comes into play, but we should have came out ready to play no matter what."

As the Lady Tigers continue through their season with no seniors on the team and a number of younger players, Head Coach Clint Bromley is seeing positives in each game.

"We're still learning things and even how the final score came out didn't really reflect the whole game to me," said C. Bromley. "We had moments that we played great and we had moments that we played poorly and obviously those poor ones outweighed the good ones, but at least when you're seeing those good ones you know that there's something coming."

Encampment was off to a rough start early in the game and appeared to struggle on the court against the Lady Rattlers. Within the first eight minutes, the Lady Tigers only managed 4 points as LSRV put up 22 on the scoreboard. While Encampment only put another 4 points on the board in the 2nd quarter, they also were able to keep the Lady Rattlers from heavy scoring, keeping them to only one additional basket before the half.

Going into half time, Encampment trailed 8-24.

"I think that we are a really strong team and that we bond really well and that we have a lot of strengths and we need to work on our weaknesses and just figuring those out," Finney said. "Just running the floor better, getting our offensive plays ran better. All of that."

When the Lady Tigers came back from half time, there was an obvious effort to try and turn the game around. A 3-pointer from Allison Bromley seemed to be the catalyst for Encampment to get some traction against the Lady Rattlers and five of the Lady Tigers would score in the 3rd quarter with a total of 19 points with LSRV scoring only 10 points.

"For them to get down by 20 and then bring the game back to 6 (points) and then next thing you know you're down by 20 again, it's just those moments that we got to get worked out and get out of our system," said C. Bromley.

In the final eight minutes of the game, the gap that Encampment worked to close would increase again. The Lady Tigers, however, would work to get back to a close score with LSRV. While Encampment put another 10 points on the board, the Lady Rattlers would more than double it with 22 points in the 4th quarter.

The final score was 37-52.

"I thought Allison probably played her best game of the year and so that's encouraging," C. Bromley said. "Then we'll get a couple more to follow suit I think we'll be there."

Freshman Cora Schroeder would lead the Lady Tigers in scoring with 10 points against LSRV, followed by Grace Tieszen with 9 points and A. Bromley with 8 points. Junior Lizzi James scored 5 points and Maren Baker scored 4 points.

Following the conference loss to LSRV, the Lady Tigers are 5-5 for the season and 0-2 in conference play. Encampment will get more conference action this weekend as they host the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns and the Cokeville Lady Panthers. Encampment is prepared to host more conference rivals.

"I definitely think that we're up to task. I think that if we come out the rest of these practices this week and just stay focused and mentally in the game and know where we're at with where we're playing with our skill level, I think that we will definitely come out and play our game," Finney said.

"I think we definitely got a shot at Farson for sure and Cokeville's a difficult task," C. Bromley said. "You really got to be on their game to get them beat, I guess we'll see how it comes out They (Lady Tigers) step on the floor, they got a chance to win the game."

Tip-off against the Lady Pronghorns will begin at 4 p.m. on January 24 and Encampment will face off against Cokeville at noon on January 25 at Encampment High School.