Boys battle at East/West Classic

The high school boys basketball team came away with a 0-3 record as they took on Big Piney, Pinedale and Lyman this past weekend at the East/West Classic at Rawlins.

Coach Shane Corpening said the encouraging thing was that the Bobcats saw some better competition, taking on some 3A teams, and played hard in every game in the fourth quarter. “The struggle for us was just getting together a whole game.” In the game against Big Piney, Thermopolis was down 30-17 at the half, then wound up outscoring them by 11 in the second half. “We were at the point where we were down by one point with a minute left,” Corpening said. “We had an open layup and just couldn’t convert it.”

The game against Pinedale was the same way, the coach noted, with Thermopolis trailing by 20 at one point in the first half but putting together a good second half. At one point, Thermopolis shortened the gap to three points though Pinedale extended their lead deep in the fourth quarter due to some free throws and the Bobcats having to foul.”

As for Lyman, Corpening said, “They put a zone in against us and we didn’t respond very well. We got down by about 16 and tried to make a comeback at the end and it was just too little too late.”

Final scores were 48-46 against Big Piney, 52-45 against Pinedale and 43-33 against Lyman, all three losses for Thermopolis. “We were in the games,” Corpening said. “We put ourselves in a position to win them at the end, but just fell short.”

Corpening noted Duder Harvey is still getting his 10-15 points per game, for which they’ve come to rely on him. “That’s what he needs to do to help us win.” Cade McLean is also becoming a big scorer, put- ting up six or more points per game. “Right now he’s shooting the ball really well,” Corpening said of McLean. “He’s shooting at the top percentage of the state, which is really good for us.”

Sean Miller performed well against Pinedale, taking 11 points and 13 rebounds. In the same game, Jarron Mortimore had seven points and six rebounds, as well as a couple blocked shots on defense.

“I thought we had some good production from the bench too,” Corpening said. “Especially in the Big Piney game. Hardy Johnson came in off the bench in the fourth quarter as a freshman and hit two three-pointers. That helped to get us back in the game. Oran Coyne, in that same game, hit two-three pointers in the fourth quarter, which gave us a good lift.

“The scoring is pretty balanced. We’re getting baskets from every- body, help from everybody, which is important. That’s what we need to do if we want to be successful. I thought our defense once again was solid. It’s kind of where we hang our hat and it was pretty solid this weekend. With the exception of Pinedale we kept teams under 50 points and if we want to win we have to keep them under that benchmark.”

As good as the defense has been, Corpening said they have struggled with finishing a possession with only giving up one shot for the opposition. “We need to get better at rebounding the basketball. We’ve been playing good defense for the entire season but where we tend to get hurt is when they get an easy put back. That’s demoralizing for the team.”

Corpening also plans to work with the boys on being more patient with the ball on offense and having fewer turnovers.

“It was an encouraging weekend,” Corpening said. “We went 0-3 but you can still see the improvement game to game, which is important. When these boys figure it out and put a whole game to- gether they’re going to be a pretty good team.”

Jan. 11-12 will see the Bobcats at home finally, with the Big Horn Basin Classic, and Corpening said they are ready to play in front of their home crowd. The boys hit the courts in two games on Fri- day, Jan. 11, against Riverside at 1:30 p.m. and Lovell at 7:30 p.m.