Varsity boys take loss in opener

To start the weekend off right, Green River High School’s junior varsity basketball team won their first game of the season, against Star Valley. The score was 46-38.

Head basketball coach Laurie Ivie said their win was a bid deal to them, especially because junior varsity didn’t win a game last year.

“They did great,” Ivie said. “They played a lot of hard defense, a lot of rebounds, they just played super aggressive.”

GRHS varsity basketball played a tough game against Star Valley this weekend as well. Varsity came away with a loss against Star Valley, with the score of 57-46.

“We had a great game. There was never a time when they were not in the game,” Ivie said. “They just came out and had a really slow start.”

Ivie said there was a lot of nerve with the first game of the season. The team starts this year with no returning starts, so for many of them it was their first time playing on a varsity basketball court.

“Overall, the kids played extremely hard,” she said. “We did a lot of great things, which is super encouraging.”

The team’s strong point is their defense. Ivie said Green River out rebounded Star Valley and got more rebounds than them in the second half of the game. Their weakness as of yet is their offense techniques.

“There’s just a little wrinkles we need to iron out with our offense,” Ivie said.

She said the goal is to strengthen their team by looking at specific things they need to work on like, just continuing to take care of the ball and making good passes.

“We will take it one thing at a time. The focus is on us and what we need to do to get better,” she said.

The basketball teams’ next games are home games again this weekend, for the Flaming Gorge Classic basketball tournament. A total of 32 teams will compete, including varsity and junior varsity teams from around the region and outside Wyoming.

“Our goal is to win some basketball games,” Ivie said.

She said the team they area looking for a challenge against is Worland, but they are all important games.

“We treat every game with the same importance,” Ivie said. “Every game is a challenge and we have to step out there and meet it.”