It was an entertaining inter-conference opening to the weekend on a cold Thursday night in Shoshoni. The Class 2-A Northwest Wranglers entertained their Fremont County rivals from the Southwest 2-A, the Wyoming Indian Chiefs with the Chiefs pulling away late for a 64-55 win.
The score was tied at 50 with 3:23 remaining in the game when Wyoming Indian junior Ryan Martel was called for a foul. He argued the call and was nailed with a technical foul. He added a little profanity towards the official that called the first technical and picked up another one, getting ejected from the game. He must now sit for the next two games per WHSAA rule.
Shoshoni had a golden opportunity to pull ahead late in the game but Braxton Mills missed both of his free throw attempts from the initial foul, and Alex Mills connected on just two of four to give the Wranglers a 52-50 advantage.
Poor free throw shooting was the Shoshoni demise all game. They finished just seven-of-18 from the line on the game.
The Chiefs were much more effective at the line, converting nine-of-11.
The final minutes were an interesting mix of basketball strategy.
Wyoming Indian rolled on a 14-3 run in the last two minutes of the game, including Brandon Coffee and Jayquin Jones hitting all five combined free throws they attempted.
Shoshoni was in the double bonus early in the fourth period and had only one team foul.
A foul count of 10 to 1 generates a lot of questions on the team with more fouls but it turned out to be a blessing for the Chiefs.
Wyoming Indian jumped into their delay game with 1:17 remaining, and Shoshoni had to foul six consecutive times before sending the Chiefs to the line for a bonus free throw. The effort to stop the clock via the foul took a long time and the Chiefs were able to run five to 10 seconds off the clock each time before a player was fouled.
Coffee paced the Chiefs with 15 points. Jerrell Tillman scored 14 in an all-around great floor game, scoring on drives and follow shots and converting all three of his free throw attempts.
Jason Slowbear tallied 11 and Tyson Sounding Sides had 10.
Alex Mills led all scorers with 19 points, including three 3-pointers. Trey Fike had dozen, 10 of those in the opening half off of acrobatic jump shots in the paint over the taller Wyoming Indian defenders.
Shoshoni is home again Friday, hosting St. Stephen’s.
The Chiefs host Rocky Mountain at Ethete on Saturday in a game between the Northwest and Southwest 2-A conference leaders.
Shoshoni 13 16 10 16 – 55
Wyoming Indian 11 21 16 16 – 64
Shoshoni – Alex Mills 4 (3) 2-5 19, Aidan Jarvis 2 3-4 7, Trey Fike 6 0-2 12, Leslie Todd (1) 0-2 1, Quintan Clark 2 0-0 4, Braxton Mills 1 2-5 4, Cannon Campbell 3 0-0 6. Totals 18 (4) 7-18 55
Wyoming Indian – Jerrell Tillman 6 2-3 14, Izaiah Burnett 1 0-0 2, Jason Slowbear 4 (1) 0-1 11, Parlayne Ferris 2-2 2, Brandon Coffee 3 (2) 3-3 15, Jayquin Jones 1 2-2 4, Tyson Sounding Sides 2 (2) 0-0 10, Allen Redman 3 0-0 6. Totals 20 (5) 9-11 64