Playing with emotion

The beginning of conference play for the Encampment Tigers began in the Valley, as they were hosted by the Saratoga Panthers for their first home game of the season. While Saratoga attempted to secure a win for the home crowd on January 9, the Tigers' early lead saw Encampment to their first conference win of the season.

"Thursday was a good basketball game," said Jake Johnston, head coach of the Tigers. "Both teams played hard and well. I thought we shared the ball well as a team. Saratoga is a tough team that is coached very well. It was a good win for our program."

It didn't take long for Encampment to gain control of the court in the Panther Den with the first basket of the game being made by the Tigers. Within the first few minutes of the 1st quarter, in fact, Encampment put several points on the scoreboard. Nearly four minutes in, the Tigers were leading their Valley rivals with a score of 15-7.

As the first eight minutes ran down, Encampment picked up multiple rebounds and appeared to force the Panthers into speeding up and down their home court. The 2nd quarter appeared to be more of the same as Saratoga continued to try and keep pace with the Tigers. Going into halftime, Encampment was in the lead by 9 points with a score of 36-27.

Coming into the 2nd half, the Panthers appeared to begin providing more resistance to Encampment's scoring as they brought the score close. With the gap coming to a close and the Tigers determined to keep ahead, some of the players began to foul when attempting to rebound. Direction from Johnston, however, kept them on the hardwood.

While the 3rd quarter saw the Panthers close the gap, the 4th quarter would see Encampment extend it yet again. Despite the revitalized effort from Saratoga, the Tigers kept their lead as the buzzer sounded. 

The final score was 70-61.

"I would credit our success to our off season training and our great coaching," said junior Dalton Peterson. "Our coaches take countless hours to prepare and make sure we have a great game plan to succeed. However, we still haven't accomplished our goal and so we need to continue to get better everyday and make sure we leave it all on the floor."

Peterson led the Tigers on Thursday with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. Following Peterson was senior Dayne Anderson with 17 points. Sophomore Koye Gilbert scored 15 points and had 9 rebounds and senior Reid Schroeder scored 7 points and had 7 rebounds.

"I thought, overall, everyone played hard and it was a solid team win," said Peterson." Saratoga played well, shot well and are a very well coached team, so it was nice to steal a win on the road and start conference play with a win."

Following their first conference win, the Tigers are 10-0 for the season and 1-0 for conference play. While still early in the season, Encampment is No. 1 in the 1A Southwest Conference as other teams begin to play conference games.

This week marks Encampment Homecoming. The Tigers will host the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers (7-3, 0-0) at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

"I think the emotions will be high with it being a conference game on homecoming, but we play our best when we play with emotion," Peterson said. "Baggs (LSRV) is another tough conference team and it should be another fun game to play in."