Miners win and lose

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miner High School basketball team played a Saratoga team this week and won. It was not the Saratoga varsity team which is currently undefeated, but the Saratoga JV team.

They won 55 to 50 on February 2.

Miner basketball Head Coach Cliff Jones said it was actually a good match up with his team that is rich with young players.

"It was a good experience," Jones said. "Their JV team had a few seniors and juniors in addition to the younger players. The mix was comparable to what our team is made up of."

Jones said it was a good game from start to finish and he felt good prep for playing Encampment on Saturday.

Unfortunately for HEM the Encampment Tigers beat the Miners 62 to 43.

"Encampment is very aggressive offensively, and year in and year out, Encampment is one of the best defensive teams that we see," Jones said. "I think their coach does a great job teaching defense and has high expectations his kids will play defense for him and it shows."

Jones said it is an aspect of the game the team has to work on.

"We played with them most of the first quarter where the score was 12 to 14," Jones said. "What we have to do as a team is–be willing to play that hard and expend that much energy for a full game. That is what is killing us right now. We play hard in spurts and we don't push it as hard as we should to be successful."

Jones said, as the coach, he needs to emphasize to the team they have to push themselves to play hard.

"We have had a couple games this year where we have proven we should be in close games," Jones said. "Not necessarily winning them, but the scores should be closer. I think what it boils down to, we haven't played hard enough for 32 minutes for us to be successful at all the times."

Jones said Encampment is a good basketball team, but he felt HEM could have done better.

"I don't take away from the Tigers or their coaching, but I felt we should have been more competitive than what we were," Jones said. "I think we have the potential."

The Miners will be facing two conference games at  Farson-Eden Thursday and Rock River on Saturday. The Miners are 4-11 overall and 1-2 in conference play.