hem regional championship

By Kirk Hanna
Times staff writer
While not too many people around the county expected the Hanna Elk Mountain Medicine Bow boys basketball team to be vying for a regional tournament championship Saturday in Lander, the Miners overcame the doubts and ran the floor with the Burlington Huskies.
“I think we’ve played as hard a schedule as anybody this weekend,” head Miner coach Clif Jones said. HEM played the Nos. 5, 3 and 1 teams in the state, respectively, so losing 47-33 to the Huskies wasn’t too much of a damper for Jones. “I’m happy with a second place finish here ... but we still have lots of work to do before the state tournament,” he said as the Miners prepare for Thursday’s opening round game of the 1A state tournament in Casper.
Saturday’s championship game wasn’t as bad as the score may seem. The Miners lit the scoreboard first, when Matt Larson got open in the lane for finger roll. In fact, HEM held a 2-0 lead for the first two minutes. When the Huskies did manage to fill the basket with a layup of their own, Larson was able to answer the call with a baseline drive and score. With five minutes remaining in the first quarter, Larson was outscoring Burlington’s entire team 4-3, and the Miners held on for a 10-8 lead after eight minutes of play.
“The biggest question all weekend for us was, ‘Can we answer the runs,’” Jones said. HEM was able to do such against Encampment the day before, leading to the monumental upset, and the Miners continued to do such in the second quarter against the Huskies. HEM held Burlington scoreless for the final 2:42 of the quarter and led 21-14.
In the locker room at halftime is when the Huskies regained their composure.
Burlington jumped out of the gates in the third quarter scoring the first five points of the second half and blanking the Miners for the first two minutes. Midway through the third quarter, Burlington found the lead at 24-23 and Jones used a timeout to settle his team down, and to try and quiet the hundred-or-so Burlington fans in attendance. “I thought we played good basketball for two and a half quarters,” he said. “(The Huskies) have active hands ... and we couldn’t handle it.”
In the fourth quarter, the Miners trailed 33-27 due to being outscored 19-6 in the third. Then Paul Christiansen took over the game for the Huskies. Three-pointer after 3-pointer, Christiansen found ways to stretch the Husky lead to 45-31 at the mid point of the final stanza. Each team would add one more basket in the final 3:50 of the game and the Huskies celebrated another Burlington regional championship.
Larson finished with 16 points for the Miners and Matt Mayfield added 10. “He really responded well today,” Jones said after the game of Mayfield’s performance. “He had a good weekend.”
HEM is scheduled to play at 6 p.m. on Thursday against the Southeast Cyclones.