Tigers out of holiday break

The Encampment Tigers split their weekend with a loss and a win as they were hosted by the Saratoga Panthers on Friday and hosted the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners on Saturday.

Coming out of the holiday break and heading into the regular season in the difficult 1A Southwest Conference, the weekend's games were a chance for Coach Duane Gilbert to see what his young team could do.

"I think every game that we play, we seem to figure out more about basketball and more about ourselves and that was the case this weekend," said D. Gilbert.

Tigers vs. Panthers

For their first post-holiday game, Encampment was hosted by their Valley and conference rivals, the Saratoga Panthers. Despite the score, which saw Saratoga win 57-36, the Tigers showed off their hard work on the court. The Barkhurst brothers, Caysen and Brayden, spent a decent portion of the first half matching the energy of the Bartlett Twins, Grant and Grady.

Caysen was joined in varsity experience by Koye Gilbert and Michael Anderson as they led a team putting in the work to find their place on the hardwood.

"It exposed a lot of our weaknesses of what we need to work on," D. Gilbert said. "When you play a super talented team like Saratoga and they've got a great coaching staff, they'll expose your weaknesses as quick as anybody."

Tigers vs. Miners

Coming off a conference loss the night before, Encampment hosted the Miners for a home court win. While not a conference victory for the Tigers, they dealt a loss to HEM by a score of 61-39.

Following their split weekend, the Encampment Tigers are 3-2 for the season and 0-1 for conference play. The Tigers won't get much of a break as they have four games in the next two weeks with three of those being conference games.

On January 14, Encampment will be hosted by the Rock River Longhorns. Then, on January 15, the Tigers will host the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers for a conference matchup.

"It's going to be a crazy battle for someone to come out on top of that one," said D. Gilbert.

Then, on January 21 and January 22, the Tigers will host the Farson-Eden Pronghorns and the Cokeville Panthers, respectively, for homecoming.

"Cokeville and Farson, it's just no different than what the Southwest has been for the last many years. It's a battle just to try to get a precious win enough to even have a chance to get to regionals over here with five teams," D. Gilbert said. "I like that they're on the road but we're at home, but it's never a guarantee."