Work after wins

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School boys basketball team faced Dubois at 3 p.m. on Friday in Dubois and Rock River at noon on Saturday at the HEM gym and came out on top in both competitions.

Dubois lost 57-35. HEM head coach Cliff Jones said the team played well, but felt there was improvement needed inside the paint.

"For whatever reason, we are struggling shooting the basketball inside," Jones said. "We have missed a lot of point blank shots, so we just have to get more confidence in shooting the ball."

Jones said, at Dubois, 17 shots were missed inside. He added Basil Phillips had one of his best games all season at Dubois.

"Conor (McGraw) had 17, Shane (McGraw) had 11 and 16 rebounds, Devon had 10 and I thought Basil, who had 10 points, did a great job," Jones said. "He did a great job against Rock River too."

The Rock River Longhorns Tristan Bunce is an All State caliber player that Jones said Phillips kept at 14 points. Bunce is averaging 26 points a game.

"Tristan is a legitimate basketball player who does a lot things that doesn't always get mentioned and unfortunately gets overlooked at the All State meetings and Basil's task was to play him man to man," Jones said. "We don't take Tristan for granted because we know how good he is and, although Basil might not have scored as many points as the night before, he did a great job containing Tristan. He was up to the challenge."

The Miners went ahead of the Longhorns the first quarter 19-4 and it was 28-12 at halftime. The third quarter did not have either team score a lot of points by either team ending at 34-15.

"The fourth quarter was pretty much us playing a wash with us playing different kids," Jones said.

Jones took out all his starters to give his second string time on the court.

Bunce took advantage and Rock River scored nine unanswered points in 30 seconds. Jones took a time out and put back in all the starters.

"Tristan was pressuring our JV kids and they didn't need to go up against a player like him," Jones said. "I put the starters back to calm the situation and then, when Rock River took Tristan out, I put the JV team back in. That kid (Bunce) is a competitor and our kids didn't need to make any more turnovers in that situation. It makes no sense to put them in a situation to lose confidence."

Once Rock River pulled Bunce out, the JV team went back in and finished the game, winning 65-41 and making their record 7-4 overall and 2-0 in the conference.

Devon Grosstick was the leading scorer for HEM with 19 points and 5 rebounds. Brendon Reeves had 11 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals.

"Devon had a good second half once he started attacking the basket hard," Jones said. "Brendon played a very solid game as his stats show and overall I think we had a good game."

Besides Grosstick and Reeves scoring double figures, both McGraw brothers did also.

S. McGraw had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and C. McGraw had 12 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals.

Jones said although there was balance in many aspects of the past two games, he would have the players focus on doing more on the inside.

The Miners will have faced the Saratoga Panthers at 5 p.m. on Jan. 29.