It was a challenging split for the Lady Chiefs this weekend against Big Horn County teams. Friday Wyoming Indian overcame a lackluster start to handled Class 2-A Northwest Greybull 36-23, but Saturday, Lovell’s tenacious, switching half-court zone defense was too much for the Lady Chiefs and they fell 47-29 to their longtime Class 3-A rivals the Lovell Lady Bulldogs.
“We had trouble getting our point guards to set up the offense,” Wyoming Indian head coach Aleta Moss said.
Saturday’s game was the lowest first period effort by Wyoming Indian in a very long time. The Lady Chiefs were scoreless until the 4:09 mark of the opening period when Layla C’Bearing connected on a free throw. Lovell led 10-1 until late in the period when Shye Killsontop hit a follow shot.
Trailing 10-3, the Lady Chiefs were unable to penetrate Lovell’s quickly adjusting zone 2-1-2 zone defense. The Lady Bulldogs moved seamlessly, making the standard 2-1-2 base defense resemble a 1-2-2, a 3-2 and even a 1-3-1. The constant movement limited Wyoming Indian’s long range game and the Lady Chiefs finished the night with just a single 3-pointer, a shot by Deja Felter late in the opening half.
The second half was more of the same, with Lovell scoring inside repeatedly. The Lady Bulldogs didn’t hit a single 3-pointer on the game.
Killsontop paced the low scoring effort with seven points.
For Lovell Libby Mickelson scored 16 points, followed by Kenadee Rael with 9, and 8 points from fleet footed guard Amre Newman.
Friday in Greybull was another slow Wyoming Indian start, with the Lady Chiefs scoring just five first period points. They recovered a bit in the second, tallying 13 points to lead 18-14 at the half.
Wyoming Indian was able to pull steadily away in the second half, but didn’t move, pass or shoot well in the effort.
Killsontop led the Lady Chiefs with 18 points.
Wyoming Indian opens the Big Horn Basin Shootout in the pool at Thermopolis this Friday.
Wyoming Indian 3 9 8 9 – 29
Lovell 10 8 11 18 – 47
Wyoming Indian – Roberta Whiteplume 2-4 2, Layla C’Bearing 3-4 3, Taya Dixey 2 0-0 4, Deja Felter 1 (1) 0-0 5, Elianna Duran 3 0-2 6, Maggie Smith 2-5 2, Shye Killsontop 1 5-6 7. Totals 7 (1) 12-21 29
Lovell – Kenadee Rael 4 1-3 9, Amre Newman 4 0-1 8, Lily Edwards 1 1-3 3, Libby Mickelson 4 8-12 16, Connie Hall 1 0-0 2, Kallie Owens 1 2-2 4, Summer Teter 2 1-1 3. Totals 18 11-22 47
Wyoming Indian 5 13 8 10 – 36
Greybull 10 4 4 5 – 23
Wyoming Indian – Whiteplume 2-2 2, C’Bearing 1-5 1, Dixey 1 1-2 3, Duran 1 0-6 2, Ferris 2 2-2 6, Smith 1 0-2 2, Killsontop 3 (2) 6-6 18, Hiwalker 1-2 1, Brown 1-2 1. Totals 8 (2) 14-30 36
Greybull – Chapman 1-2 1, Henderson 1 (1) 0-3 5, Stanford 0-2 0, Benasky 0-3 0, Diaz Rios 1-2 1, Craft 2 (2) 0-4 10, Gomez 1 0-0 2, Oatman 2 0-0 4. Totals 6 (3) 4-16 23