Lady Miners look for silver linings

The week started out well for the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miner when they faced the Midwest Lady Oilers in a makeup game on January 31.  It was a non-conference game and the Lady Miners did well. They won the game handily, 38-27.

On February 4, the Lady Miners hosted the Encampment Lady Tigers and although the HEM team played hard, they could not find a way to beat the Encampment girls.

"Encampment seems to be peaking at a good time," Head coach for the Lady Miners said. "Their players are healthier than when we met last time and they are a solid team playing good basketball."

Jones said a problem for the Lady Miners is their inability to get points on the board.

"When you play a team like Encampment, you can't shoot the percentage that we did and expect to win a basketball game," Jones observed. "Once again, the work that they put out on the defensive end of the court is always great, but our shooting percentage is absolutely holding us back."

Jones has told the team becoming good shooters doesn't happen in only a three and a half month time period.

"Their shooting skills have to be developed in the off season as well," Jones said. "Of course those words are meant for the future down the road." 

The team is down to six girls and only Rainey Wilson is a senior.

Friday's game against Encampment, had the Lady Tigers win 43-18 in a non-conference game.

February 5 came and the Lady Miners hosted the Rock River Lady Longhorns. 

This was a conference game and the last time the two teams played each other earlier in the year, the Lady Longhorns prevailed 41-25. 

"The girls' effort was there, but like many other teams, we had half our girls sick this weekend," Jones said. "I told them that we could get the games rescheduled but they wanted to play."

She said the shooting percentage was again a problem, but she felt that the team did a good job of containing 6' 1" post player Niaomi Moore. Jones pointed out, the tallest of her six players is 5' 6".

"I thought our efforts were excellent and the girls play big," Jones said. "We never use our lack of size as an excuse because these girls play hard and give it their all. If we could just put the ball in the bucket we would have very different outcomes."

Jones said the team is doing well with offensive rebounding, getting the ball sometimes three times, but without converting them into a score, the stat doesn't mean much.

The score this time was Rock River 38 to HEM 23.

The coach said shooting is focused on in practice, but she would understand people wouldn't believe it.

A bright lining for both HEM teams Jones pointed out, because both teams require their players to be on the court almost constantly, conditioning exercises are not a focus because the kids are getting in shape just by all the minutes they are putting in during games.

"We are proud of the effort of the kids and absolutely we wish the scores would be more in our favor," Jones said. "But honestly, the character and sportsmanship they are learning, more than make up for the scores not going our way."

The Lady Miners will face the Wheatland JV team in Wheatland on February 8.