Tigers bury Miners

With the Christmas break over and school back underway, the Encampment men’s basketball team hosted Hanna-Elk-Mountain-Medicine Bow last Saturday.

HEM (1-8) (0-1) has had a tough time of it this season and Saturday’s conference matchup showed the Encampment Tigers (8-1) (1-0) what it is like to fire on all cylinders for the entire game.

“Everyone played well,” coach Dan Kraft said after the game. “We got a lot of young kids time on the floor, and they impressed me. The younger kids didn’t give ground, and it made it hard for HEM to score all the way through the game.”

The Encampment Tigers put up solid numbers all the way around the court, most particularly in turnovers.

“We gave the ball up only 10 times,” Kraft said. “That’s good with young kids on the floor. That shows everyone valued the possession.”

The Tigers also had the best offensive rebounding game of the season and, according to coach Kraft “We jelled all the way around. Rebounding, scoring, possession and defense all came together.”

Waddie Love led the young kids well, and Harold Jackson put up three pointers while Gaven Pantle played strong in the third and fourth quarters. This allowed Kuster and Wessel to work out under the rim and the domination is a great thing to see when they are on.

With a demanding lead of 40-4 at halftime, Kraft turned to substitutions. The younger members of the squad came off the bench with the passion that appeared to show each player wanted a spot on varsity.

The Tigers are off two weeks and then come back to play two conference games.

“We take a road trip to play Cokeville and Farson-Eden,” Kraft said. “They’re both conference games and Cokeville has only one loss. Playing in their gym will be tough.”

Although Encampment can’t overlook HEM being in their conference, the win got the team playing like they get it at this point in the season.

“We got the young players experience, and we are going to work on some different things in practice,” Kraft said. “We want to practice a press offense, and give the guards some more freedom in the offense to see what they can do.”

 

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