Rattlers bite Tigers, Pronghorns

The Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers played two tough teams this weekend and won much to the delight of Head Coach Jack Cobb. He knows the 1A Southwest Conference is loaded with excellent teams and, since only four can go to regionals, one good team will be left behind. He is hoping it won't be the Ratters and, after the weekend, he has a reason to be hopeful. 

The Rattlers are on a five game winning streak and two of those wins this weekend were in their conference.

Their first test was on January 14 against the Farson-Eden Pronghorns.

"Farson is a big, gritty team. We kind of got behind in the beginning of the game and then sort of came back, but it was a back and forth type of game," Cobb said. "I think we might have had a one point lead at half-time, but that didn't matter. It was just tight and then we did open up a seven point late in the 4th quarter, but we missed some key free throws. It was a typical Farson game where every minute counts."

The Rattlers beat the Pronghorns 45-42.

Cobb said another reason he was happy, besides the Rattlers winning, was the game was played at home where he said the crowd was incredibly supportive. He said last year the team had gone 1-15 and when the Rattlers won in front of family and friends, it was a confidence booster for the players, especially for those who played the year before.

"We only have five home games this year, so I think everyone just savored the moment," Cobb said. "It was great to have one home victory to start the conference play with."

The next day found the Rattlers facing the Encampment Tigers and Cobb said it was anybody's game until the end.

"Encampment is a solid team and Koye (Gibert) was a handful because it is hard to play a good defense inside against him," Cobb said. "He is strong and when he gets in position, he doesn't miss."

Cobb said it was a back and forth in the first half. Although in the very beginning the Rattlers went up, it didn't take long for Encampment to be back with LSRV. The second half Cobb saw his team go down by six points but, in the closing seconds, the game was tied and the Rattlers missed a 10 foot shot to send the game into overtime.

"We just did what we had to and were able to come up with the win," Cobb said "It was a big win over a very good team."

The Rattlers came out top with a score of 54-47.

A huge difference between the game was the shooting of free throws.(Cobb said that against Farson, the team did not shoot well. Against Encampment, the team shot very well.)

"We did not shoot well on our home court, but we did on the court of Encampment," Cobb said. "We are missing way too many easy shots. We are shooting almost better from the 3-point line than two feet from the basket and we have to work on that. We can't afford to give up that many shots on the inside. We have to get that licked."

Cobb said he did lose two starters before the games. Seth Maxson and David Hernadez are injured, but he has depth to replace them. He did acknowledge Zane Matheson had a good game against Encampment but he said, as a coach he doesn't focus on stats. Rather, he focuses on what the team does on defense.

"After being 1-15 last year and no conference wins, I could see in a lot of the players' eyes the confidence I was hoping to see that I saw during football season," Cobb said. "I wasn't sure it would happen this season, so it was good to see."

The Rattlers next game will face Meeker on January 20.