Rattlers finding their footing

The Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattler basketball team was able to escape the weather which closed down many tournaments in the state, and make the Lyman Tournament on December 10.

The Rattlers first faced the Mountain View Buffaloes.

The 3A Buffaloes stomped the Rattlers 61-26 and Head Coach Jack Cobb knew he had to talk to his team for them not to lose spirit as the tournament continued.

“We played a better second half but, in the locker room after the game, I could tell by the way the boys had their heads down, that they were really dispirited,” Cobb said. “I told the boys after they dropped their heads at the Mountain View game, ‘Hey guys, this team is 3A and they played in the championship game last year, and they know what they are doing. So don’t hang your heads”.

Cobb told them to learn from their loss.

The next game was against the Kemmerer Rangers, another 3A team, on Saturday morning.

Cobb said the first half his team came out a little sluggish.

“Kemmerer jumped on us early and they came out and tore us apart by the half where the score was 42-12,” Cobb said. “They are a big team and their big guys can shoot from the outside. We changed it up the second half and we outscored them. The boys needed to get out of the mindset that they couldn’t compete. They could and proved it in the second half.”

The final score was 55-29.

Cobb said the team did believe his words as they took on the Big Piney Punchers as their last game of the tournament.

Big Piney is a 2A team.

“We didn’t start out well in the 1st quarter, where we were down 17-6,” Cobb said. “Then we came back and even took the lead which we switched back and forth until the last two minutes.”

Cobb said the loss came down to some free throws at the end.

The final score was 47-43.

Cobb said he learned a lot about his team.

“I was asked who my best player was and honestly I could not tell you,” Cobb said. “I had some surprises that I hadn’t expected. I knew my bench was deep, but I didn’t realize how deep it was until all three games were played.”

Cobb said, to give an example, David Hernandez scored two points in the first game, zero the second game and 14 points the third game.

He did say Hadley Meyers was a consistent leader on the court when he played the first two games. The third game he was in foul trouble early.

“The kids that I had sort of expected to be the leaders has sort of flipped after the three games,” Cobb said. “It is going to be fun to figure this all out. I don’t even know who I am going to be starting when we go to Shoshoni. I will be watching practices closely.”

He said the scoring was very balanced by his players.

“I really don’t have a clue who is going to start,” Cobb said.

The reason Cobb goes up against such tough competition before conference play is learn what his teams are bad at.

“I don’t want to play a team we can beat by 30 points before conference play,” Cobb said. “That doesn’t tell me anything. I want to learn before we get to conference play what we need to work on.”

Cobb said once he explained this concept to the boys after the game against Mountain View, the team got it and relaxed when they played the next two games.

The next game will be against Riverside on December 17 at the Shoshoni Invite, where they will also play Meeteetsee and Shoshoni.