Boys coach excited to play ranked teams

It was a hard weekend for the Thermopolis Boys Basketball team, losing games against Riverton 78-42, Lovell 57-38 and Cody 69-39 during the East–West Classic at Lander.

Coach Kevin Gerber said Trey Davis was “huge for us” in the game against Riverton, coming off the bench and hitting five three-pointers. He was the lead scorer for the game followed by Hudson Roling with 12.

The game was tough for the team, Gerber said, with Noah Schwalbe getting into foul trouble early on. “I think he had, maybe, a total of four minutes of play time in the first half. That definitely changed the makeup of our team for that first half.”

Regarding Riverton, Gerber said they are the number one team in the state for 3A, and they look it. Riverton came down from 4A to compete at the 3A level, he noted, and he’s really happy with what the Bobcats were able to do. Though Riverton was able to sink 10 treys through the game, Thermopolis kept pace with seven.

“I was excited to play them,” Gerber said, “because if you feel like you’re ever going to be the best you have to beat the best, and they’re that team . . . that gave us an idea of where we want to be.”

Scoring for the Riverton game was: Davis — 15; Roling — 12; Schwalbe — 8; Will DeVries — 4; Logan Bartholomew — 2; and Brett Nicodemus — 1.

As for the game against Lovell, Gerber said Thermopolis is a better team than what they showed. He said the game was early, at 8:30 a.m., which can “throw some different wrinkles at you.” Though Lovell recently dropped down to 2A, Gerber noted they are still a good team.

The big goal in the Lovell matchup was to be more aggressive, Gerber said, and challenge them at the rim. “We want to try to focus more on being the aggressor.”

Gerber further noted he changed up the offense a bit. The team has an offense they’re comfortable with running, he said, and he made the change to help the team understand they have to implement multiple facets to the game to be competitive.

“That was kind of the focus of this game. I did change up their offense a little bit and made them have to work at it a little bit.” He’s excited to see Lovell again when they come to Thermopolis to play Jan. 14 “I think they’re going to see a different team from us.”

Scoring against Lovell was: Schwalbe — 17; Roling — 7; DeVries — 5; Bartholomew — 4; Trey Davis — 3; and Nicodemus — 2.

Regarding the final game against Cody, Gerber noted the opposing team was ranked third in the state.

Gerber said Schwalbe had a great game, putting up 25 points. “He really hit some big shots,” Gerber said, “and it wasn’t because he was the only one shooting. We just had some shots that didn’t drop.”

What Gerber really appreciated from the captains — Schwalbe, Roling and Jake Maksin — is their approaching him about getting off to a slow start. The captains suggested getting a different defense going, which worked out well and confused Cody, allowing the Bobcats to get some momentum. “As a coach, you love hearing someone step up and suggest things,” Gerber said, adding he’s encouraged them to speak up when they notice things they could change.

Thermopolis kept up with Cody in the first half, with the score 20-19, but the final 90 seconds saw seven unanswered points from Cody to make it an eight point game at halftime. Gerber said the team felt really good where they were.

In the second half, Gerber said it felt like a game where things were going well, even though the point deficit continued to grow. “It didn’t have the feel of us not holding our own.” Cody would go on to outscore Thermopolis by 10 in the third quarter, and by 12 in the fourth.

Scoring against Cody was: Schwalbe — 25; Bartholomew — 5; Roling — 4; Davis — 3; and Nicodemus — 2.

“I don’t think the score, by any means, tells the whole story,” Gerber said. “They don’t tell you the ebbs and flows of the game. I saw some really good things out of our boys. I can’t stress how happy I am and how impressed I am of their attitudes. They’ve been very easy to work with. They’ve been very coachable.”

Weekends like this past one really give a good idea of what the season ends are like. Gerber said there are long days with fairly long breaks, and the boys often have to get themselves ready to play both in the morning and coming off the break. He enjoys these weekends for that purpose, and also to see where the team is and where they need work.

Looking at the holiday break, Gerber said it’s a good time to get some of the players healed up. He’s had more of an open gym feel for the holiday practices, but this year there will be a focus on skills building. Though not mandatory, Gerber said when the boys are in town he expects them to be at scheduled practices. The coach is also big on family, though, and allots for days with no practices around Christmas and New Year’s.

The more structured, skills-based practices are something the boys seem excited about as well, Gerber said, and it will help move the program in the right direction.

The biggest thing for the team, Gerber said, is they get back to school Jan. 4, then almost immediately get back on the court with the Big Horn Basin tournament Jan. 5, 6, and 7. The freshmen will also be competing Jan. 7, at the Buffalo Invite. “Those first few days right after New Year’s are going to be important . . . I really hope to have some good practices going into that meet.”