hem v. toga

By Kirk Hanna
Times sports writer
With five seconds to play in the game, the Hanna Elk Mountain Medicine Bow Miners’ girls basketball team led 27-26.
When the clock struck zero, the Saratoga Lady Panthers had won 28-27.
It was just the right kind of game that fans like to see on a well lit hardwood floor in the middle of winter, but this was only the first game of the season, so it could be a sign of an exciting season ahead.
“(Amanda Booth) did a very good job of ball control,” head Miners coach Jackie Jones said. But she also did a great job of scoring as well.
Booth bucketed 20 points for the Miners to lead all scorers on the night.
Going into the half, HEM led by three, and then going into the fourth quarter the Miners led 27-21. Booth scored all of the Miners’ points in the third stanza.
And as the fourth quarter winded down, Jones was pleased to see her team’s ball control work. “Our girls in the past haven’t shown a lot of patience with ball control,” she said. “(But) we actually did a very good job of that in the fourth quarter.”
While they didn’t score at all in the fourth, Booth made some good drives and Jennifer Korkow set some good screens.
Coming into the season, Jones said “some people (thought) we were going to be a team of scrubs ... but (the girls) definitely showed a lot of heart, a lot of hustle tonight.”
The next team on the schedule is Shoshoni at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, a team that scored 68 points Friday night to win by 60.
That doesn’t discourage Jones, however.
“We now what we want to do,” she said, “and right now the win-loss record isn’t as important as it will be come February and March. I truly use these (early) games as learning tools.”
Her first lesson is to have her offense “be crisper in their offensive sets.”