Facing strong adversity

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners faced two larger teams last week, showing their coach they may be small but they still have fight.

First, the Lady Miners hosted the Saratoga Lady Panthers on January 25. Then, on January 29, they were hosted by the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns.

Lady Miners vs. Lady Panthers

During the 1st quarter, the Lady Miners kept up and the score was even. Then Saratoga used their depth of players to move ahead of the smaller team.

"I thought our girls came out very strong when the game started," said Head Coach Jackie Jones. "In that 1st quarter we were leading in rebounding. But, in all fairness, the Lady Panthers took over the flow of the game although the girls hung in there buzzer-to-buzzer."

The Lady Miners have six players on the team. The Lady Panthers had double the amount of girls.

Jones said she is proud the Lady Miners played as hard as they did, getting little rest but never giving up.

The game ended with Saratoga leading with 49 points to the Lady Miners's 29.

Lady Miners vs. Lady Pronghorns

The game against the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns showed Jones the Lady Miners are a team that plays hard no matter the score or the adversity.

The Lady Miners were up at halftime 21-17, then the second half went badly.

"It was was probably one of the most hard fought basketball games by a group of young ladies that I have seen in a long time," Jones said. "We started out with six on the team and we had that thing happen I have feared all season."

The Lady Miners had one player foul out. Then another player fouled out and only four girls were left on the court. The only senior, Rainey Wilson, was the first to go out of the game. Then Mackenzie Priest, the tallest player at 5' 7", was out. Jones said another aspect of the game which hurt the Lady Miners was their free throw shooting.

"I told the girls after the game, everyone in that crowd wondered if we ever worked on our free throws," Jones joked. "Actually, it is one of our focuses. We had chances to help ourselves, but we didn't."

The game could have gone completely downhill given all the adversity they were facing.

"So we had four girls on the floor and then Avery (Scott) banged her head pretty hard and we had to pull her out," Jones said. "There was a stretch of the 4th quarter where we had three girls on the floor. I had Avery on the bench and we put her through all the concussion protocols. Once we deemed she was okay to go back on the floor, she got back into the game. It was pretty amazing the fight the girls had in them, whether it was five, four or three. We were being pressed full court and still put up points. To only lose by six, I think speaks volumes about the girls we have on our basketball team."

The Lady Pronghorns won 38-32.

Jones doesn't let the height disadvantage be an excuse for ever losing.

"We face it every game we play, and we know that we just have to work harder," Jones said. "I just can't say enough about how this little group of girls have come together."

The Lady Miners were hosted the Midwest Lady Oilers on January 31. They will host the Encampment Lady Tigers at 4 p.m. on February 4 and the Rock River Lady Longhorns at noon on February 5.