Miners split weekend

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners played the Wheatland Bulldogs sophomore basketball team on February 8 and won 47-28.

“The kids played well against Wheatland,” Head Coach Cliff Jones said. “This year our goal has been to show improvement when we meet a team a second time. Generally they send a more competitive team to us if we win the first time and if we lose, they adjust their team to be more competitive that way.”

Jones said, in the first half, the Bulldogs were right with HEM in scoring. It was the second half when the Miners pulled away.

“We were able to execute what we changed without practicing it,” Jones said. “Usually you like to practice over and over game plans, but we don’t have enough players to do that. I was encouraged by what they did.”

With only five players, Jones is proud of what the boys are accomplishing. He said many people tell him that in order for them all to play all the minutes they do with no subbing, the boys must go through strenuous exercises during practice.

“I run these boys less in practice than any other group of 25 years of coaching,” Jones said. “The reason for that is if we used practice time on conditioning, we would not have the time to work on the skills for them to become better basketball players. I told the kids early on in the season we are going to get into playing shape by playing the games.  That is what we have done.”

He said the goal was for the team to get in shape as the season got near regionals.

Jones said the game with the Lingle/Ft. Laramie Doggers went about as he expected. 

“Our kids played hard, but unfortunately, it was not a good basketball environment for us,” Jones said. “I can say that I am glad that they are going to 2A and we won’t have to meet them again. For the past eight years, they have never come here to HEM, but we always made it up to their home court.”

A development which occurred and had not happened before was Hayden Atencio fouling out with about five minutes left to play.

“Hayden was given three fouls in the first four minutes of the 1st quarter,” Jones said. “We had four team fouls in the 1st quarter and Hayden had three of them. They were offensive fouls where he was going for a layup. So that changed the way we wanted to play, because Hayden has been playing really good basketball and his teammates have been feeding him the ball.”

Jones said during the season it is uncharacteristic for Atencio to get three fouls during an entire game, so it was a surprise for him to get three fouls in the 1at quarter, especially in less than four minutes.

“I could have picked any of the other four kids and not be surprised it was them, but Hayden is not a contact kid,” Jones said. “So we had to overcome that and we did. The game was not a pretty game, but it played out as expected.”

The Doggers won 71 -20. Atencio fouled out and the team finished with four players on the court.

“We just chalked it up to a learning experience, got on the bus and moved on,” Jones said.  “The boys played hard and never gave up and that is what is important to take away from the game over everything else.”

Jones is proud of how close the team has become.

“We continue to work hard as a team and I am pleased with the progress we have made,” Jones said. “Of course you can always want more but right now our goal is to stay tight as a team finish out the season as strong as possible.”

The Miners will meet Guernsey/Sunrise Vikings on Friday up in Guernsey and on Saturday the team will host the Kaycee Buckaroos.