Small but mighty

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners played their first game on December 13 to a home crowd against the Wheatland sophomores. The Miner basketball team is down to six boys and player Rayce Ward was starting the game with a nagging injury which had the coaches careful how much they used him.

"With the first weekend tournament cancelled (Carbon County Classic) we started the season with Wheatland's Sophomore team," Head Coach Cliff Jones said. "It is nice to start the season with a win and I felt we did some good things considering it was our first game of the season."

Fans of the Miners had every reason to think the basketball team was not going to come out with a win when the Wheatland sophomores sat down. The bench had close to 20 players.

The Miners scored the first point and didn't look back as they went to win the game by 20 points, 41-21.

"What I was most impressed with during the Wheatland game was how hard the team played," Jones said. "I thought we really got after loose balls and did a nice job of controlling the rebounds.  We gave them very few second chance points. Kyler (Proffitt) finished the game with a double double (12 points 11 rebounds)."

Rayce Ward and Dylan Romero both scored 8 points in the Wheatland game.

The Miners victory was short lived when they went to the Wrangler Invite Shoshoni.

"The tournament in Shoshoni was an eye opening experience for many of  our players," Jones said. "The best teams in 1A were there along with some really solid 2A teams."

The Miners didn't come away with any wins, but their coach was not unhappy with how the team did.

"We did some good things in the tournament and unfortunately, we did some not so good things," Jones said. "I felt we competed hard and that we played with a lot of determination."

Jones was impressed with his freshman, Cody Priest.

"I thought that Cody made solid strides as the tournament progressed," Jones said.

The coach was also happy with his other players.  

"I felt that Dylan Romero, Kyler Proffitt, and Hayden Atencio did a solid job of taking care of the basketball as we faced a lot of full court pressure," Jones said. "We will probably rely on those three to do the bulk of the ball handling as the season progresses. I need them to be a little more aggressive looking to score as we are going to need willing shooters if we are going to be successful."

Another junior being asked to raise his game is junior Jesse Deegan.

"Jesse is asked to play about every position for us from guard to post," Jones said. "Jesse sure doesn't complain and will do his best at whatever you ask him to do. I see Jesse playing a really important role for us this season and I have been very pleased with the work that he has put in."

On December 16 the Miners played the Burlington Huskies, losing 68-19. In that game Proffitt scored 9 points and Romero scored 6 points.

On December 17, the Miners faced the Meeteetse Longhorns and although the game went to the Longhorns, the Miners were competitive. The final score was 47-31 for Meeteetse. Romero scored 11 points and Atencio 8 points.

The last game on Friday showed the team was getting a bit tired when they lost to the Riverside Rebels 66-27. Three players scored 6 points. Atencio, Romero, and Priest all hit 6 points in that game.

Jones knows his post players are key as the season continues.

"Our two post players saw a lot of action this past weekend.  Rayce Ward is fighting through a knee injury and is a little limited in what he is able to do on the court but he continues to play hard  and really give us solid minutes," Jones said. "Our other post player, Cody Priest, is trying to get acclimated to high school varsity basketball.  It is a big adjustment coming from junior high to the varsity level in high school without having the chance to play some JV in between.  I have been pleased with how hard he has competed so far this season and have already seen some good improvement."

The next games will be after the holiday break against the Rock River Longhorns January 7 in an away game and the Encampment Tigers on January 8 in Tiger territory.