Tigers prepare to growl at regionals

Even after Friday’s upset against Little Snake River, the Encampment Tigers are still heading into regionals as a third-place team in the 1A Southwest Conference.

With 15-6 overall and a conference record of 5-2, the Tigers currently trail behind Little Snake River and Cokeville within their 1A conference. Encampment lost 47-58 against the Rattlers Friday, in what was the Tigers’ last regular game before regionals.

Head coach Clint Bromley said this week’s regional tournament is what the team has been working for, and every earlier game has now just been practice. The Tigers begin their regional play tomorrow against Dubois, who are ranked second in the 1A Northwest Conference.

“Next week everyone comes in with a record of 0-0, and the first four teams to win two before they lose two get to represent the West in the State Tournament,” Bromley said. “I feel we have shown improvement over the past three months and we are peaking at the right time so we hope to be competitive and get the opportunity to extend our season another week. We know the challenge is going to be difficult, but hopefully everyone comes together and we make it happen.” 

Looking back on their last pre-regional season game, Bromley said Little Snake River was very talented and would have been difficult to beat on any level.  

“We didn’t have a lot at stake in the game, because win or lose we were still going into the regional tournament in third place, but our boys played hard and we were pleased with a majority of the things that they did,” he said. “We gave LSRV 20 points in the first quarter while we only scored 12, and that proved to be the difference in the game. We have to go back and regroup this week and work on suring up our defense. We had great showings from Luke Pantle with 22 points and Guy Erickson with 17, but I thought the play of senior Brett Miller was the best I had seen him play this year, which is encouraging.”  

Encampment’s Tigers begin their first regional game against Dubois at 5:20 p.m. tomorrow. The three-day tournament takes place tomorrow, Friday and Saturday at Lander Valley High School in Lander.