Tough week for Miners

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners didn’t have the week they had hoped. First, the Dubois Rams were quarantined meaning HEM didn’t have a game on Friday.

On Saturday going to Guernsey-Sunrise, HEM played a solid first half, but in the 3rd quarter the game got away from the Miners.

“We played well in stretches, but in the 3rd quarter, they made a run that we didn’t recover from,” Head Coach Cliff Jones said. “At halftime we were tied 36-36 and then, the 3rd, quarter they outscored us 18-7. We found ourselves in hole that we couldn’t dig out of as the game went on.”

Jones said the last quarter of the game was more even but, in the end, Guernsey won 72-55.

Devon Grosstick led the team with 21 points, Taylor Widdison had 11 points and Ura Schmidt scored 10 points.

“When the game had Guernsey have that run, it was hectic on the court,” Jones said. “We sort of bought into their style of game they wanted to play. It was fast tempo and helter-skelter. We did a good job in the first half because we maintained the pace we wanted to play at and they came out the second half and they did their pace and got the run, which was really the difference in the game.”

Jones said when HEM gets into another team’s rhythm, it does them no favors.

“I kind of have a motto that I say, ‘lets do what we do and do it well, instead of what the other team wants us to do or tries to force us to do’” Jones said. “The team right now, our strength is not playing transitional basketball, it is more of a half court game on both ends of the court, slowing the clock down.”

Jones said when the team does that, they have been somewhat successful. He said running up and down the court does not play to the current team’s strengths.

Jones said he was pleased with Schmidt.

“Ura may not always fill up a stat sheet, but he does a lot of really important things for us,” Jones said. “I thought Kyler Proffitt played well coming off the bench. Kyler was sick last week, but when he got on the floor he scored four points. They were big points at a crucial part of the game.”

The boys next game is at Farson-Eden on January 28, then they host Wind River on January 29 and play Kaycee on January 30.