Photo by Erik Gantt Hunter Hammer fights for a rebound as Gage Bartlett falls away from the mêlée during Saturday's rout of Rock River.
Wyoming's leading scorer in boys basketball, Rock River's C. J. Smith, was held to only 10 points by the Encampment Tigers in their 63-17 win Saturday.
Smith put up 44 points last week against Meeteetse and has a season average of 28.7 points per game.
For the second time this season the Encampment boys varsity basketball squad (1-2, 1A Southwest Conference, 12-3 overall) crushed Rock River (6-8), more than doubling the Longhorns score. In their previous matchup in December the Tigers beat the Longhorns 81-28.
Other than being down by 1 point (2-3) with 6:27 left in the first quarter the Tigers held a lead for the entire game against the Longhorns. Good passing and shooting during the first quarter meant the Tigers had a 21-6 lead after the first 10 minutes.
The domination of the Longhorns continued and the first half ended with a 42-9 Tigers lead.
"Don't let up", Bromley told his team in the locker room at halftime. The coach acknowledged the Tigers complete dominance over the Longhorns, but he didn't want his team to get lackadaisical. Bromley said if the score continued to be lopsided he would start subbing players five at a time in order to get everyone some time on the court.
Bromley credited shutting Smith down to the three players he tasked with taking him on man defense. Jared Stewart took first shift against Smith and when he was starting to tire Brett Ralston took over. Spanning the gap until Stewart was ready to box out Smith, KeeGan Johnson filled the third role in the defense against the state-leading shooter.
In the second half the Tigers continued to work a man defense and shot well to increase their lead to 40 at the end of the third quarter. Even with some turnovers as Bromley began to let the bench loose wholesale the Tigers finished the game 46 points ahead.
"It's a testament to the kids, they weren't worried about their stats, they were more worried about the team and how the team was going to play that night," Bromley said.
Guy Erickson led the Encampment team Saturday with 11 points, six rebounds and five assists. Harold Jackson had 9 points, Luke Pantle had 9 points and eight rebounds, Hunter Hammer had 9 points and six rebounds, and Brett Ralston had 8 points.
Encampment hosts Hanna/Elk Mountain/Medicine Bow next week with basketball games beginning at 4 p.m. on Friday.
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