Lady Miners soak up Midwest

The first game of the season for the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners was at home, on Saturday, against Midwest.

The Lady Miners are returning with players that have a lot of experience together and it showed almost immediately as HEM started scoring against the Lady Oilers. To the credit of Midwest, they scored the first points but, once HEM settled down, they took the lead.

HEM scored fast and furious with a mission. It was apparent from the onset of the game that the Lady Miners were going to dominate. They got ahead by 10 points in the 1st quarter and never looked back. Going into 2nd quarter it took Midwest almost six minutes before they got into double figures while the Lady Miners had 28 points. Rainey Wilson and Taylor Scott could not be stopped as they ran the floor for the Lady Miners. Amy Campbell scored inside and her twin siste, Madison, hit three 3 pointers. They went into halftime ahead 33-11.

The girls came out fired up in the 2nd half and with 4:34 left to play in the 3rd quarter, HEM was ahead 44-11. The Lady Oilers could not find an answer to stop HEM nor could they score. With a little over a minute left in the 3rd quarter, the Lady Oilers scored. The Lady Miners were ahead 52-13.

Going into the 4th quarter, because the score had the Lady Miners ahead by over 30 points, the "mercy rule" was in effect where the clock was allowed to only stop during timeouts. 

By the time the Lady Oilers had their second score in the 2nd half, the score was 61-15. Three minutes later the game was over and HEM won 66-17.

"I thought we were very balanced today," Head Coach Jackie Jones said. "Scoring-wise, defensive-wise, rebounding, I just felt today was a total team effort."

Jones said that in practice she stresses defense.

"If you play tough defense, and you don't take a break on defense, then a team creates things," Jones said. "I think that is exactly what happened today. I thought Taylar and Rainey with their defensive pressure really set the tone for everything we wanted to do today."

She said her two freshmen, Avery Scott and T'lysa Solaas, when subbed in also did an excellent job keeping the pressure on.

Jones said Midwest had come off a double-over-time loss the night before.

"Give Midwest credit and playing as hard as they did right after a heartbreaking loss and then having to be at an away game, the next day," Jones said. "They came in here and gave it their best."

Jones said defense and rebounding is a one-two punch when playing.

"This team is all about that," Jones said. "If things aren't going right offensively, defense will allow something to happen."

Good things did happen. A. Campbell scored 23 points, M. Campbell had 19 points and T. Scott had 14 points. Three players being in double figures made Jones happy.

Jones was pleased with the shot selection her team took.

"There were a couple long shots that might have been ill-advised," Jones said. "But I never want to turn a girl away from shooting outside, because if you can open a game up with outside shooting, it makes the post-game that much easier,"

Jones said it was an excellent first game to start the season with.

The next scheduled game is at 4:30 p.m. on December 15 at HEM.