Middle school seventh grade basketball players working hard, improving

The seventh grade boys basketball team has been spending a lot of time on the court lately and their practice has definitely improved their scores.

During a recent tournament with Powell and Cody, the A team “did a much better job offensively against Powell the second time around,” said coach Dan Webber. “We are improving defensively and I think the boys are starting to see and understand just how hard you have to work to stop a team like this.

During the 23-48 loss to Powell the top scorer was Brody Potter with six points, followed by Haden Overfield with five. Logan Dafoe tipped in four to go with Ryan Arends’ three points.

Zerrian Stone and Dennis Korte each had two points and Colter Price popped in a freethrow for a single point.

Against Powell, the B team fought hard, however they came up with an L in the column, 25-34.

“Again, we fell just short in back to back games against the same team,” Webber said. “Zack Hastie and Stone Pebbles provided us a nice spark offensively. If we can limit second change points, we will have a shot at beating this team next time.”

Hastie and Pebbles led the charge with seven points each. Bridger Peil added an additional four points while Cody Bomengen, Ellis Webber and Scott Coale each swished in for two points each.

Nolan Collins rounded out the scoring with a single point freethrow.

The A team had a rough loss against Cody, 13-53, but coach Webber said, “Cody really came out and played us tough defensively. We got down 15 in the first quarter and just couldn’t come back from it.

Against Cody, Colter Price put in five points, Ryan Arends, four and Overfield and Webber each dropped in two points.

The B team’s game against Cody was a little closer, 32 – 40, however, coach Webber said, “Our B team really ran the floor well in this game and got several transition basket, which is something we have really been working on.

“Bridger Peil did a great job getting out and running on the wing, which resulted in some easy buckets for him.

“Unfortunately, we just didn’t get the defensive stops we needed at the end of the game and gave up too many second chance points. We have to find a way to improve our rebounding to stop this from happening.”

Peil added nine points to his stats and Bomengen and Hastie added six each. Webber tipped in five points, followed by Nolan Collins with four points and another two from Coale.

Games against Lovell this last week came out with mixed results. The A team fell to Lovell, 10-52, while the B team came away with a win, 37-15.

“Our A team had another tough game against this Lovell team,” Webber said. “Our kids just don’t match up well against this team and they took advantage of that. We have really been struggling in our half-court offense, so we have been focusing on defense and hoping to create turnovers to help produce points in transition.”

Arends and Overfield both came away with four points against Lovell while Korte dropped in the final two.

“Our B team really stepped up and responded to a challenge I game them,” Webber said. “We lost to this team by two points on their court the last time we played, and on our court I asked the kids to turn it around in our favor this time.

“They played their best game of the season so far and it all started with defense. We got after the Lovell players and made it a tough night for them by being aggressive and limiting second chance points.

Webber had an amazing 13 points on the board. Hastie and Peil had six points each, followed by Collins with five points. Pebbles tipped in four, Bomengen, two and Coale, one point.

Last weekend the boys traveled to a quad in Lander with mixed results.

The A team played Riverton first, losing the contest 26-55.

“Our offense was improved in this game,” Webber said, “but we just cannot give up this many points and expect to be competitive. We did run into some foul trouble early on, and with our small bench, this was a problem for us, but not an excuse.

Overfield led the way with eight points, followed by Korte with seven. Arends dropped in five points, Colter Price, four, and Brody Potter added another two points.

On the B side, a win over Riverton, 22-15, started the weekend on a good note.

“This went right down to the end and we gained some great experience learning to take care of the ball and make free throws when we needed to,” Webber said. “Plus, the boys got to experience a pretty wild crowd that was making a lot of noise, but they were able to shut that out and finish this game.”

Webber topped the scoring with eight points against Riverton. Coale put in four while Nolan Collins popped in three. Bomengen, Hastie and Peil each had two points and Pebbles scored a single point on a freethrow.

Next in line was the A team vs Lander, a loss at 15-45.

“This game was more of the same for the A team,” Webber said. “We scored half of our points on one run when we picked up our defense and got some steals that turned in to layups.

Brody Potter was lead scorer against Lander with seven points. Arends scored four and Korte and Webber each had two points.

It was another win for the B team as they defeated Lander 32-16.

“After their close game to start off the day, the B team was ready to go and came out and played well against Lander,” Webber said. “This group of boys is really starting to figure out how much defensive effort it takes to be successful.

Peil had a great 10 points against Lander, followed by Collins with seven, Webber with six, Hastie scored five and Coale and Bomengen each tipped in two.