Rocky Mountain and Wyoming Indian are familiar West 2-A tournament foes going back for a couple of decades, but in all that time, they had never faced each other in an elimination game Early Friday afternoon.
The Chiefs made short work of the Grizzlies 73-46 to remain alive in their quest for the state tournament.
They can advance to Casper with an 8 am Saturday win over the loser of the first semi-final game between Greybull and Wind River.
Thursday evening’s shooting frustration by the Chiefs evaporated quickly with a quick burst to an early double-digit lead.
Rocky Mountain forward Carsyn Weber was out of the game on crutches after suffering a severe angle injury the day before against St. Stephen’s.
In his absence, high-scoring senior Ben Simmons tried to take the team on his back and it was not nearly enough against a well-balanced, good-passing Wyoming Indian squad.
The Chiefs filled the lane on the break, forced turnovers out of their press, and hit six treys, five more than the night before.
Senior Brandon Coffee had the hot hand from the perimeter hitting three treys on the game and was perfect in six attempts at the line for 15 points.
With Coffee a threat outside, the Grizzlies extended their defense, and Jerrell Tillman and Josh Slowbear went to work off the dribble. Tillman paced the Chiefs with 17 points and Slowbear added a dozen.
In between the arc and the paint, 6-2 freshman Cordell Spoonhunter went to work, hitting reverse layups in traffic and classic post moves along with a single 3-pointer, he tallied 11 points.
Spoonhunter hit a buzzer-beating baseline 3-pointer at the end of the third with the ball barely moving the twine as the horn sounded to end the period. Wyoming Indian led 61-38 after his shot.
When the Chiefs are on, there is no better team to watch play, and they had flashes of offensive brilliance throughout the game.
On the other side of the consolation bracket, Kemmerer an overtime loser to Wind River in the late game on Thursday handled rival Big Piney 68-61 to remain alive in the tournament.
Wyoming Indian 22 19 20 12 – 73
Rocky Mountain 12 16 10 8 – 46
Wyoming Indian – Jerrell Tillman 5 (1) 4-4 17, Izaiah Burnett 2 2-4 6, Jason Slowbear 5 2-4 12, Parlayne Ferris 1 (1) 1-3 6, Brandon Coffee (3) 6-6 15, Cordell Spoonhunter 4 (1) 0-0 11, Tyson Sounding Sides 1 2-2 4, Allen Redman 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 (6) 17-24 73
Rocky Mountain – Haslem 1 (1) 2-2 7, May 2-4 2, Johnson (1) 0-0 3, Cooley 1-5 1, Bischoff 3 (1) 4-7 13, Simmons 2 (1) 2-4 9, Moore 1 0-2 2, Minemyer 3 3-8 9. Totals 10 (4) 14-32 46