By KARLA POMEROY
The Riverside Rebels dropped two conference games over the weekend struggling with turnovers at home to Lovell in a 73-22 contest and lost a 65-31 contest in Byron against Rocky Mountain.
Coach Brent Winters said of the Lovell game, “The biggest thing I saw was they were quicker and taller. They frustrated us with their quickness and the ability to block shots. When that happens you lose confidence to shoot over the top.”
Riverside lists three players over 6-0 — Jared Jares (6-2), Brynnt Wood (6-3) and Brandon Black (6-2). Lovell had seven players over 6-0, including starting senior center Jonathon Wakelin at 7-3. According to Riverside statistics, Lovell had four blocked shots. They also had 22 steals, many off the full-court press. The steals contributed to 33 Riverside turnovers.
“I thought our defense most of the time did well but they would get loose inside and got a lot of layups,” Winters said. He said the team hung close to Lovell until about midway through the first quarter. After trailing 6-0, Lovell put on the press and jumped out to a 21-5 first-quarter lead.
“It was good experience against some height and quickness,” he said.
No one scored in double figures for Riverside, led by Wood with nine points. Mike Miller had a solid all-around game though with four points, six rebounds and three steals.
At Rocky Mountain, Winters said the team opened strong, even leading late in the first quarter before a late surge put the Grizzlies up 16-12 at the end of the first period. The Grizzlies outscored Riverside 21-8 in the second quarter and held the Rebels to single digits in each the third and fourth quarters as well.
He said the game with Rocky Mountain was physical and they struggled stopping the Grizzlies inside game.
With only 20 turnovers and allowing just 12 steals compared to the previous night, Winters said the team handled the pressure from the Grizz fairly well.
Riverside’s shooting woes continued however, hitting just 23 percent of the shots, 10-42 from inside the arc and 2-9 from beyond the arc. The Rebels shot 20 percent from the field against Lovell.
This weekend, Riverside hits the road for two games starting at Big Horn on Friday with games at 3 and 6 p.m. With Big Horn playing Tongue River close two weeks ago in a 54-52 loss, Winters said he expects a similar game as they had with the Eagles.
They return from the mountain Friday night and head to Shoshoni Saturday morning with the JV boys game cancelled. The varsity tips off at 4:30 p.m. Shoshoni has struggled with numbers this year, Winters said, having to postpone their game with Greybull last week. He said he hopes Shoshoni has enough players because they expect to be competitive against the Wranglers.
LOVELL (73)
TOTALS: 34-73 3-8 73. 3-POINTERS: 2-12. REBOUNDS: 43. STEALS: 22. TURNOVERS: 20. ASSISTS: 6.
RIVERSIDE (22)
Clint Getzfreid 0 1-2 1, Dan Koch 1 0-1 0, Zach Christopherson 0 0-0 0, Jordan Herman 2 2-2 6, Jared Jares 0 0-0 0, Mike Miller 1 2-4 4, JL Miller 0 0-0 0, Brynnt Wood 4 1-4 9, Brandon Black 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 8-39 6-13 22. 3-POINTERS: 0-4.
REBOUNDS: 19, Mike Miller 6. STEALS: 6, M. Miller 3. TURNOVERS: 33. ASSISTS: 6.
Lovell 21 21 14 17 — 73
Riverside 5 3 9 5 — 22
RIVERSIDE (31)
Clint Getzfreid 2 0-1 4, Dan Koch 0 0-0 0, Zach Christopherson 0 0-0 0, Jordan Herman 1 0-0 3, Jared Jares 3 3-4 10, Mike Miller 0 0-5 0, JL Miller 0 0-0 0, Brynnt Wood 3 1-1 7, Brandon Black 1 1-2 3. TOTALS 12-51 5-13 31. 3-POINTERS: 2-9, Herman, Jares.
REBOUNDS: 26, Wood 9, Getzfreid 6. STEALS: 2. TURNOVERS: 20. ASSISTS: 10, M. Miller 4.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN (65)
TOTALS 26-70 10-16 65. 3-POINTERS: 3-16. REBOUNDS: 38. STEALS: 12. TURNOVERS: 13. ASSISTS: 15.
Riverside 12 8 5 6 — 31
Rocky Mtn. 16 21 12 16 — 65