Lady Wolves net two wins at home

The Green River High School girls basketball team played hard during the Flaming Gorge Classic last weekend, ending with two wins and one frustrating loss.

The loss came during the first game of the tournament, when Fruita Monument High School beat the Lady Wolves 53-39.

"We started out with a little bit of struggle in the first game," Coach Rick Carroll explained. "Fruita gave us pretty good pressure in the full court, and we struggled a bit with that."

Fruita is a 5A high school from Colorado. Carroll explained the team had a good squad of 10 or 11 players that all did well and were able to rotate and stay fresh throughout the game.

Carroll also believed the Lady Wolves struggled in some key areas, which contributed to their inability to catch up to Fruita.

"I think we just never got into a very good offensive rhythm and didn't score and turned the ball over and got behind, and then we were kind of chasing them the whole game," he said, adding the team "started a little bit slow, had a little bit of trouble with the pressure, and really had some trouble scoring throughout the game, and fouled a little bit more than we needed to, so that hurt us a little bit too."

Despite the loss, several players did well, with Megan Counts scoring 16 points and getting eight rebounds and six steals and Sarah Wilson contributing 12 points, three assists and three steals.

After the early loss to Fruita, the rest of the Flaming Gorge Classic tournament went in the Lady Wolves' favor.

The night two game against Bear Lake High School from Idaho jump to a quick lead, which they maintained the rest of the game, ending with a 60-40 win.

"I thought we did a good job with defensive pressure and we really did a good job of keeping track of them and we made it hard for them to score," Carroll said. "We were pretty consistent throughout the game, scoring got the same amount all four corners, and that's really what we're kind of looking for, being consistent."

Several players scored high against Bear Lake, with Wilson scoring 12 points, Counts scoring 10 points, both Daryn Macy and Jayla Braden scoring 10 points and Gabby Heiser scoring eight points.

"So we had five people scoring, and you know, it just makes it tough if you get a lot of people scoring and playing well during the game," Carroll said.

The tournament wrapped up with a game against Torrington High School. Carroll explained the 3A high school was participating in the Flaming Gorge Classic for the first time and wanted to play the home team while they were there.

"It was a good game," Carroll said. "They've got some pretty darn good players."

While the Lady Wolves scored 23 points in the first quarter for an early lead, the second quarter didn't go as well, giving Torrington the chance to catch up. The GRHS girls brought it back during the rest of the game, however, ending up on top with a 59-52 win, which Carroll credited to the defensive pressure.

"We just have to be a little bit more focused throughout the game so we don't have those quarters where we don't score many points," he noted.

Macy led the scoring against Torrington with 21 points and six rebounds. Wilson scored 14 points and had three assists and three steals, and Counts scored 13 points. Ella Stanton also helped the team win with eight rebounds.

Overall, Carroll felt it was another successful year for the Flaming Gorge Classic tournament as a whole, saying he heard positive feedback.

"When you have that many teams come, sometimes it's tough to match everybody up exactly how you need," he said. "And this early in the season, you know, some people aren't quite sure where they fit in anyway. But I felt like it went really smooth and I think people had a good experience."

The Lady Wolves were preparing for a few more practices before and after Christmas break, and in the beginning of the new year they'll head to Cheyenne for their next tournament, which Carroll said is a good "jump start" for the rest of the conference schedule.