The games between the two and three seeds in the opening round of state tournament action have traditionally been the best ones to watch on Thursday. That was true for the first 26 minutes at Casper College in a game between the third place Lady Cougars of Wind River and the second-seeded Lingle-Ft. Laramie Lady Doggers.
It didn’t end that way.
With the score tied at 30-30 on a follow shot by Madi Arneach with 6:20 left in the contest, it looked like the game would go down to the wire, but instead Lingle finished the final minutes on a dominating 18-2 run to send the Lady Cougars to the consolation bracket.
Before the final Lady Dogger onslaught, the game was tied four times with an equal number of lead changes.
The Lady Cougars trailed by five at the half, and were down 23-16 in the third before they rallied for the first time at 24.
Amanda Jenkins hit Karina Frederick with a perfect bullet pass for a layup to open the rally followed by a short-range jumper from Arneach and a pair of Delaney Gambler free throws. Jenkins hit another pair of charity shots and the game was knotted at 24.
Frederick scored on a fast break and Emma Miller took an inbound lob for another two points lifting the Lady Cougars to their largest lead of the second half 28-24.
The scoring slowed after that.
Lingle rolled into the lead on an 11-0 run and kept scoring to pull away to an easy lead.
Jonae Spoonhunter led Wind River with seven points and Jenkins had six.
As a team the Lady Cougars were zero for six on 3-point attempts.
Wind River plays Burns at 10:30 Friday morning in a loser-out game at the Ford Wyoming Center.
WIND RIVER 7 9 12 4 – 32
LINGLE FT. LARAMIE 11 10 7 20 – 48
Wind River – Karina Frederick 2 0-0 4, Amanda Jenkins 1 4-5 6, Jonae Spoonhunter 3 1-2 7, Emma Miller 1 0-0 2, Madi Arneach 2 0-2 4, Allison Tidzump 1 1-2 3, Delaney Gambler 2 2-2 6. Totals 12 8-13 32
Lingle-Ft. Laramie – Jordynn Speckner 3 0-0 6, Skyla Wunder 3 (1) 4-5 13, Brenly Shipp 4 2-4 10, Natalie Speckner 1 (2) 2-2 10, Holly Leiseth 2 1-2 5, Avary Rising 1 2-3 4. Totals 14 (3) 11-16 48