Miners dig in for State Championship

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School boys basketball team are going to state.

Head Coach Cliff Jones said the team had accomplished what it wanted before it went to regionals.

“We won two games before we lost two and that was our goal going into the regional tournament,” Jones said.

The No. 2 seed in the Southeast Conference faced off with Hulett, the No. 3 seed in the Northeast Conference on February 27. It was a close game but the Miners prevailed 79-74.

The next day, the Miners faced Upton, the No. 1 seed from the Northeast Conference and it was a high scoring game. Unfortunately, Upton came out on top 70-93. To go to state, the Miners knew they had to win the next game.

On February 29 at 10:30 a.m., the Miners faced Guernsey-Sunrise. The past meetings this season had HEM come out on top. The winning streak was to continue with the Miners winning 71-35.

This put the Miners in a battle for 3rd place with Kaycee. The game was at 7 p.m. later that Saturday.

Although the Miners played well, Kaycee took the game 49-60.

Jones was pleased with how the tournament went.

“We were able to string four pretty good games together last weekend,” Jones said. “Overall it was some of the best basketball we have played this season.”

The Miners had a rough season with many games and practices being canceled due to the heavy winter endured by northern Carbon County.

He had praise for the teams that beat the Miners.

“Upton and Kaycee, the two teams that beat us, are both very good and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Upton playing late Saturday night at the event center,” Jones said. “This week we are hoping to be competitive and our main goal is to be playing on Saturday for one of the four trophies that they pass out.”

Jones knows the goal for the team won’t be easy.

“We start off with some teams from down in the southern part of the state and they seem to be pretty good. They are well coached and they are really good at the game of basketball. The last couple of years at the state basketball tournament they have won their first round games by a pretty substantial margin, which tells me that they will be ready to play this year as well.”

Jones knows his team will face adversity in getting past Encampment, the first team they meet on March 5.

“Its going to be a challenge but, the way we see it, at the state tournament every game should be,” Jones said. “You have to bring your best effort if you want to be competitive. We hope to go with a lot of energy and discipline and then see what happens.”

The game against Encampment will be at 1:30 p.m. on March 5 at the Casper Events Center.