TMS boys basketball opens

Last week the seventh and eighth grade boys basketball team kicked their season off with a two quads. The seventh grade played at Worland, while eighth was at Cody.

The eighth grade A Team saw a 59-13 loss against Cody, and the B team had a 21-7 loss.

Coach Ryan Shaffer said this was a rough start for the A squad, “as we played a very talented Cody team. We had a few issues with rebounding as we were a little intimidated by the height of their players. After the first quarter the boys settled down a bit and played much better.

“We were very aggressive and took the ball to the hoop many times in this game. We were able to get to the free throw line 22 times; unfortunately we only made 4 of them. Better free throw shooting should have gained us easily another 12 points in this game. We will be focusing on boxing out players as we let way to many second/third shots go up and gaining focus on the FT line for the upcoming games against Worland and Lovell.”

Scoring for the game was: Gavin Shumway, 4; Hadley Johnson, 3; McCoy Longwell, 3; Chase Moeller, 2; and Roedy Farrell, 1.

Due to the number of players on our B team, “we played a half game against Cody’s B team,” Shaffer said. “Overall we played well doing a better job defensively rebounding the ball. After the first quarter the score was 9-5 with Thermop only being down by 4. We let Cody have many fast break points which gave them the bigger lead in the second quarter. A few of our players play both A and B and it started to show late in the first half of this game.”

Scoring was: Carson Williams, 4; Owen McCumber, 2; and Spencer Calhoun, 1.

The eighth grade also took on Powell, coming away with a 29-18 loss for the A team and a 14-7 win for the B.

“We played much better in the second game of the quad against Powell,” Shaffer said. “We were able to move the ball and run through the offense resulting in better shots. We ran the ball well opening up for a few fast break points and McCoy Longwell shot well ending the game with nine of the 18.

“It was a fast paced game until Powell slowed things up in the second half. It frustrated our boys and ended up only resulting in 13 points total scored by the two teams in the second half. We weren’t able to get to the line as much shooting 2-6 for free throws. Much better boxing out, but we need to learn to keep up the pace no matter how the other team plays.”

Scoring was: Longwell, 9; Farrell, 6; Shumway, 2; and Johnson, 1.

As for the B game, Shaffer said, “this was a great matchup for us. We were aggressive, had several steals, and pushed the ball to get some easy buckets. Carson Williams played well getting six of his eight points off of steals. Defensively we held Powell to three points in the first quarter and only four in the second so very happy with the effort. We slowed down again a little at the end, but overall we played a great game.

Scoring was: Williams – 8; Tanner Jensen, 4; and McCumber, 2.

For the seventh grade, their first opponent was Powell. The A team had a 46-7 loss and the B team had a 30-12 loss.

Coach Daniel Webber said of the A team, “We were a little bit overwhelmed in our first game of the year by a big, aggressive Powell team. They came out in an aggressive press that resulted in a lot of turnovers for us. After the first quarter, we were able to settle down a little bit and get into our offense. We will address handling pressure and running through our offense to find better shot opportunities.”

Scoring was: Porter McCumber, 4; William Coale, 2; and Ethan Music, 1.

Of the B team, the coach said, “We were a lot a more competitive in this game, however, a scoreless second quarter did us in. We were a bit outsized again but we handled that a little better. We were much more aggressive resulting in 14 free throw attempts, converting six of them. Our B team will be focusing on playing better defense.”

Scoring was: Mason Reese, 5; Ethan Crow, 3; Jessen Basse, 2 points; and Jesse Rodriguez, 2.

The seventh grade boys also competed against Cody, coming away with a 29-10 loss for the A team and a 27-14 loss for the B.

Webber said Cody’s A squad “was a team we matched up with a lot better physically. We simply weren’t getting good shots out of our offense or playing aggressively enough on defense. Our lack of aggression was reflected in only two free throw attempts. We will improve at being more aggressive and working through our offense.”

Scoring was: Jeffery Lewis, 4; Coale, 3; Trenton May, 2; and Kanyon Gerber, 1.

As for the B game, Webber said, “We started this game very slow, going scoreless in the first quarter, but we picked it up as the game went on, even outscoring Cody in the fourth quarter. Mason Reese did a particularly good job of getting to the hoop for good shots. We will work on being more competitive early in games so we don’t get ourselves in a hole.

Scoring was: Reese, 8; McCumber, 3; Rodriquez, 2; and May, 1.

This week, the seventh grade boys saw action at home against Worland, while eighth grade competed at Worland; both games were Tuesday evening. On Saturday, Jan. 19, seventh grade will travel to play at Lovell with a 9:30 a.m. tipoff time. Eighth grade will compete at home against Lovell with tipoff also at 9:30 a.m.