Lady Wolves head to State

The Lady Wolves will go into the state tournament in Casper this week in the third seed spot after winning three out of four games during last week's regional tournament.

"That's one of our goals for the year is to get to the state tournament and to see how well we can do there, so we're excited about reaching that goal," Coach Rick Carroll said. "Had to play some pretty good games, fairly close," he added.

The close games the Green River High School girls basketball team played at Regionals were won by only 12, seven and eight points, but the Lady Wolves fought to come out on top.

Regional competition started last Thursday when the Lady Wolves took on Star Valley, the same team they'd defeated a week earlier.

"We've beaten them two times before so we went out and played a lot like we had the other games," Carroll said. "We took care of the business that we needed to."

Green River started the game strong with a five point lead in the first quarter, extended it to a 10 point lead in the third quarter, and maintained the lead throughout the rest of the game, finishing with a 39-27 win. According to Carroll the Lady Wolves did a good job taking care of the ball and creating turnovers, which gave the team good opportunities and left Star Valley chasing them through the game.

Megan Counts led the team in scoring against Star Valley with 12 points, with Alyssa Cudney contributing eight baskets. Daryn Macy had eight rebounds and Counts had five. Sarah Wilson had five assists and Gabby Heiser had four. Wilson also had three steals and Ella Stanton had three. Carroll said the game was "an all-around good effort by the entire team."

In their next regional match the Lady Wolves took on Cody, a team which remains undefeated this year and gave Green River their only regional loss in a 40-21 game. The teams stayed close throughout the game but Cody distanced themselves at the end and didn't miss their free throws in the last four minutes, leading to their win. The Lady Wolves, on the other hand, didn't keep up on the offense, missing easy shots and not scoring high, according to Carroll. However, the defense was able to keep the game close, preventing Cody from scoring too many points by keeping track of their best players and rebounding well, Carroll explained.

After losing to Cody, the Lady Wolves went into the losers out bracket in an early morning face off with Evanston. Although Green River beat Evanston twice during the season, both games were close.

"So we went in knowing that we really had to play pretty well," Carroll said.

Green River played hard to pull ahead in the first two quarters and have "a nice little cushion going into halftime," Carroll explained. Evanston did come back in the third quarter after the Lady Wolves had some trouble taking care of the ball, making it a closer game before Green River was able to finish with a 42-35 win.

Counts scored 22 points against Evanston and Wilson scored 10. Counts also had eight rebounds, Wilson had five assists, and Macy had six rebounds and four assists.

While the win against Evanston guaranteed their place at state, Green River had one last regional match, taking on Rock Springs, the rivals that beat them twice during the season. The game stayed close throughout, but the Lady Wolves learned from their previous mistakes and managed to do what Rock Springs did to keep them from winning in their last match, according to Carroll. They kept control of the ball, prevented their opponents from scoring and finished well on the free throw line, all of which helped them achieve their 41 to 33 win.

While Green River's defense played well throughout the regional tournament and the offense still has work to do to keep up, Carroll believes winning against teams they'd lost to or only beaten in close games before was good for the team. The Lady Wolves were excited to take on their major rivals in Evanston and Rock Springs, and even more excited to come away with wins.

"It's a confidence builder when you can turn some things around like that," he said.

Green River will start their battle at state today, taking on Thunder Basin, the second seed team.