The Lady Wolves started the basketball season with two wins and one close loss at the Oil City Classic in Casper last weekend.
“I thought it was a pretty good start to the season,” Coach Rick Carroll said.
The competition started with a match against Kelly Walsh, which the Lady Wolves won by six points, with a final score of 53-39. Megan Counts led the team with 19 points and eight rebounds. Sarah Wilson scored 13 points and had eight assists, and Daryn Macy had 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
“As a team we played pretty well,” Carroll said of the game against Kelly Walsh. “I think the one thing that we did really well in that game is we gave them a lot of hassle in our full-court press, and we created a lot of turnovers that we were able to capitalize on and score some easy baskets.”
The second game of the weekend was the Lady Wolves’ one loss after a close game with Laramie. The team lost by seven points, ending with a final score of 52-45.
“The biggest issue we had against Laramie is we weren’t very effective in our press, so we didn’t create a lot of turnover so that we could turn those into easy baskets, and that hurt us a little bit,” Carroll explained. “We didn’t shoot very well in the half-court offense, and then we just turned the ball over too much, and that’s why we ended up on the losing end of that game.”
Despite the loss, several Lady Wolves played well through the game and contributed to the close score. Counts led again with 11 points, followed closely by Jayla Braden with 10 points and Gabby Heiser with nine points. Heiser also finished the game three-for-three with baskets from the 3-point line. Ella Stanton helped the team with 13 rebounds and five steals, and Wilson had five assists.
“We’ve got a lot of girls that are contributing positively to what we’re doing as a team,” Carroll said.
The Lady Wolves dominated their last game against Cheyenne South, winning 65-16. Counts finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and five steals. Wilson had 12 points, four assists and seven steals. Macy had nine points and six assists.
“In that game we had a really, really good first quarter,” Carroll said, adding the team scored 25 points and determined the outcome of the game within the first quarter. “That game our pressure was really tough, our defense was really good, and we just really did a great job defensively not giving Cheyenne any really good looks at the basket and kind of controlled the tempo of the game to get the win.”
Now that the season has started, Carroll sees room for improvement among the team.
“I think the one thing we really found out we needed to work on this weekend was taking better care of the basketball and reducing our turnovers as well,” he said.
Carroll also discussed the need to improve passing and do better when transitioning back to defense.
“We’re not shooting well yet,” Carroll added, “but it’s early in the season.”
Although there are things for the team to work on, Carroll pointed out strengths the team showed through the Casper tournament as well. He specifically highlighted the team’s strong offense and ability to move the ball and find open shots.
“In general I’m pretty pleased with the way we played,” Carroll said.
The Lady Wolves’ next challenge will be in the Flaming Gorge Classic, starting today.
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