Miners get a lesson

The Burlington Huskies went to Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School to prove they are a team to watch this year.

The first game the Huskies faced HEM.

The younger, smaller Miner team played hard, but it did not take Burlington long before they had control of the game.

At the half, the score was 36 to 6 in favor of the Huskies.

The HEM team did manage to get into double digits, but the Huskies were also able to score another 36 points. The final outcome was 72 to 20.

"Burlington was a tough way to start off the season, but it also showed the boys this is one of the teams you aspire to become," said Head Coach Cliff Jones said. "They are arguably one of the top three best 1A teams in the state and probably playing in Casper at the end of the year, and probably playing for trophies."

Jones said the Miners are not yet at the level of a team like Burlington, but he thinks it was good for the HEM team to see the caliber of a team likely going to state.

"I would rather start out how we have where the boys played  the type of 1A team we want to be," Jones said. "Then we played the type of 1A team we potentially could be, that belief in yourself and you have a couple of good players and then we played the sort of team we were like last year."

The team which played with confidence was the team the Miners played second. The Dubois Rams quickly came out and established their winning ways. Although HEM played strong defense and it looked like the team was playing tighter, the Rams beat the Miners 60 to 21. The Miners looked more improved from their game against the Huskies. 

"Dubois played for the state championship last year, and although they lost a core of that team, there were enough that came back and they are used to winning," Jones said. "Winning is contagious. If you are used to winning, you find ways to win the close ones. The same way, losing is contagious. If you are used to losing, most games you find a way to lose, unfortunately. Winning becomes a culture and Dubosi has that. They play like they are going to win when they come out onto the court."

Jones said he would like to see his Miners get more like Dubois with their confidence. 

The Miners got a shot of confidence when they played their last game on Saturday against the Midwest Oilers. The HEM team were in control from the start and the scoring was strong by the Miner team.

The Miners won against the Oilers 69 to 35.

"If we had played the first game against the Oilers, we would have played with confidence against Burlington who would have immediately crushed us not in score but spirit," Jones said. "But with starting with Burlington and then Dubois, which we did play better against, when we played Midwest, we got even better. The reality check will be next week when we face Burlington again."

Jones was happy to see Cody Priest and Rayce Ward start to play strong in the paint.

"They have the size and they have to have the attitude that if a player from the other team tries to score inside, it won't be easy because Cody and Rayce own that territory," Jones said. "I feel Cody especially made strides in understanding this. Rayce was already starting to do this before."

Jesse Deegan was money in the bank at the free throw line when he was up. His shooting surprised his coach.

"In practice he is not like that. He shoots 40 percent usually," Jones said. "But hey if he is able to shoot 80 percent in a game, I will take it."

One time on the free throw line Deegan made three foul shots in a row.

Jones said the Antencio brothers, Hayden and Naythen, were doing well for their age-sophomore and freshman-but they both needed to get more experience.

Senior Kyler Proffitt is doing well in Jones' eyes.

"He has potential to be our best player," Jones said. "The season just started and it will be fun to see where we end up."

The next game the Miners play is against Burlington in Burlington on December 15 and then the team will go to the Shoshoni Tournament for the weekend.