By MARLYS GOOD
The Riverside Lady Rebels, after losing to Kemmerer, 41-25 in the 2A West Regional Girls Basketball Tournament opener in Riverton last Thursday, March 25, topped rival Greybull in a come-from-behind 41-35 victory Friday morning, and were just one hurdle away from qualifying for the State 2A tournament in Casper this weekend.
That “hurdle” was the Rocky Mountain Lady Grizz and the hurdle proved too high to jump over. After riding the crest of fourth quarter surges to wins over Shoshoni in the regular conference finalé, and over the Lady Buffs in the loser-out Friday morning game, there were no miracles left. Despite outscoring Rocky Mountain 17-9 in the final quarter, it was too little too late and they had to pack their bags and go home.
The game started out with both teams playing well and Riverside down 13-11 at the first quarter break. Things started to break down in the second quarter and continued into the third with the Lady Rebels scoring just four and seven points, respectively, while the Grizz put up 12 points in the seond quarter and 14 in the third.
“We played very well in the first quarter, then we got in a bit of foul trouble,” Coach Michael McGuire said. Even with starters Chelsea Longshore and Michelle Hovey confined to the bench, the Lady Rebels managed to keep it a four-point game. That was before Rocky Mountain went on a run as the first half drew to a close and Rocky ended up leading 25-15. “We couldn’t catch up,” said McGuire.
Amber Getzfreid scored 21 of Riverside’s points, but Eliza Higgins answered with 24 for Rocky. “She was 12-17 from the line,” McGuire pointed out, while as a team the Lady Rebels were just 11 of 28 from the stripe. “We missed a lot of free throws in the second and third quarter. If we could have knocked some of those down, we would have made it closer.”
“We had no answer for her (Higgins),” McGuire said. “Their size wore us down; we just weren’t quite big enough inside — and they made plays when they had to.”
Riverside opened in a ho-hum loss to Kemmerer. A game where Riverside didn’t play well, didn’t shoot the ball well, and did little rebounding, plus getting hit with “turnoveritis.”
“It was just one of those days,” McGuire said. “I feel like if we had played like we were capable of playing we’d have beaten them. It just wasn’t our day.”
It was rival time Friday morning as Greybull and Riverside went at it nose to-nose. It looked like for once the Lady Buffs had the Lady Rebels number. Jackie Miller worked her magic for the Lady Buffs in the first quarter and scored their first nine points. Riverside’s 9-7 deficit turned into 19-13 by halftime. The teams traded points in the third quarter with Greybull up 30-24 with just eight minutes left to play.
“Greybull played really well for the first three quarters — they outplayed us. It (fourth quarter) was similar to the Shoshoni game, but not quite as dramatic,” McGuire said.
McGuire thought the turning point in the game was a timeout called with his team down eight points and six minutes left on the clock. “The girls knew it was now or never and they started making plays, making baskets. I think we went on a 12-0 run. It was a case of our defense creating offense for us; we created turnovers, got out and ran a bit and we got to the free-throw line.”
It was enough to set the Lady Buffs back on their heels as they failed to answer on either offense or defense.
In an overview of the three games, McGuire said, “It was a great tournament. Our effort was great — I never doubt our kids’ effort. They always played hard; they just ran out of gas Saturday morning.”
For the season, McGuire said, “There was definitely a lot of improvement from the beginning of the season. The team was very young, just two had played much varsity. They all did a good job and grew up a lot as the season went on — did a lot of nice things. They were inconsistent but that happens with younger teams. Coach (Dave) Tharp and I felt that although we didn’t always play well, we played hard. The girls gave it everything they had. Their effort was great. They were fun to coach and fun to be around.”
It was a disappointing end to the high school careers of Riverside seniors Amber Getzfreid, Chelsea Longshore, Chancey Rollins, and reserves Shelby McKim and Carly Jeffers.
“Amber had a good season for us. She was our leading scorer, our primary ball handler. She’s played a lot of basketball for Riverside in the last four years. A very talented player, she did a lot of good things on court, and did a lot for the program.
“Chelsea was probably one of the most consistent players we had. Defensively she was one of the best around and offensively she took care of the ball very well. She missed some games (out with injuries) but we were a better team when she was on the floor — no doubt about it.
“Chancey did not have a lot of varsity experience going in to the year. She really improved as the season went along and one of those defensively who did a great job, she played great defense on the opponent’s guards — and she rebounded well for someone her size.
“Shelby and Carly also did a good job for us and a lot for our team. They represented our team in a very positive manner and we’ll definitely miss them.”
Big shoes to fill, but McGuire has a talented group of seniors- and sophomores-to-be, many of whom gained valuable experience this year — Michelle Hovey, Sasha Rollins, Brittany Vigil and Cydnie Clark played a lot of minutes. I see good things ahead. The girls coming back are hard workers. (We tell them) if they want to be successful they have to put in time in the off season. We’re looking forward to next year.
Riverside 25, Kemmerer 41
Riverside: Amber Getzfreid 12, Brittany Vigil 5, Michelle Hovey 4, Cydnie Clark 4.
Riverside: 4 9 6 6 - 25
Kemmerer: 8 13 8 12 - 41
Riverside 41, Greybull 35
Riverside: Getzfreid 15, Hovey 12, Vigil 5, Chancey Rollins 4, Clark 3, Chelsea Longshore 1, Sasha Rollins 1.
Riverside: 7 6 11 17 - 41
Greybull: 9 10 11 5 - 35
Riverside 39, Rocky Mountain 48
Riverside: Getzfreid 21, Longshore 5, Hovey 5, Vigil 4, S. Rollins 2, Clark 2.
Riverside: 11 4 7 17 - 39
Rocky Mountain: 13 12 14 9 - 48