Miners are on the road again

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

In the midst of a killer two-week stretch, most of which is on the road, the Miners had a brief moment for a breather this week.

At the beginning of the season, the Hanna Elk Mountain Medicine Bow boys basketball team penciled this as the toughest part of the season. After last weekend’s losses against Encampment High School (66-36) and Guernsey-Sunrise (73-57), the team is looking ahead and not behind.

Mauled by the Tigers on Friday, the Miners started off the game trying to catch up. “I like to think that if we could have stopped Encampment from coming out the way they did,” coach Clif Jones said, “we could have been in that game. But they got such a big lead so quick, the game was over before it even started.”

He reiterated Encampment’s talent, size and depth as obstacles to overcome. “We didn’t play well against them,” Jones said. “They played at a level we weren’t ready to play at yet.”

With long faces in the locker room at the end of the night, the team pinpointed one bright spot. Trevor Strauch, a Miner who had not yet sunk a foul shot during the season, went two for two on the free-throw line that night.

“In that locker room, when you get beat by 30 points like we did, it doesn’t do any good to harp about it. So we found a positive and moved on,” Jones said.

On Saturday, the Miners again let their opponent take off early, but this time they responded. “We played better, especially in the second half with the transition of their two guards,” Jones said. “One went for 26, the other went for 20. They made nine 3-pointers in the game.”

Guernsey-Sunrise returned five starters from last year’s team that played in the state tournament. Guernsey-Sunrise has been pinpointed as a strong team with talented, quick guards. If Guernsey-Sunrise still played at the 1A level, it would be in the same spot as Saratoga and Encampment as one of the top teams in the state, Jones said. As it is, they hold a record of 11-2 in the 2A conference.

Jones started freshmen Mitch Long and Charlie George in the Saturday game “to see if there was a spark,” Jones said.

“They both did a great job. Of course they were nervous, playing against probably two of the best guards in the state,” the coach said. Since HEM does not meet Guernsey-Sunrise in the conference, he felt it was safe to test the waters.

Other firsts included Matt Mayfield ending the Guernsey-Sunrise game with 10 points. It was his first time reaching double digits. Kalter Blauvelt played his premier games this week. He ended with eight points on Saturday. The old hand, Justin Palm, had a good game on Saturday with 27 points and 17 boards.

Jones leads a young team into the second weekend of tough games. The Miner starters in the Guernsey-Sunrise game included two seniors, one sophomore and two freshmen. The coach thinks they are working well together.

HEM faces the Saratoga Panthers at 7 p.m. on Friday in the Platte Valley and the Little Snake River Valley Rattlers at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Baggs.

“We’re in a long stretch of road games and important games that we’ve got to take care of,” Jones said. He expects the Saratoga guards to shoot, run and press. He wants his team to be ready to step up to a higher level.

The two teams met once earlier this season. Viewing this game as a measuring stick, Jones asked, “How far have we come since that first game?” The Miners are at about the halfway point, having played 12 games with nine left before the regional tournament.

In their back-to-back games this weekend, the Miners hope to silence the Rattlers on Saturday. They will not have anything special to bring to the court, but expect a difficult game against a talented, well-coached team.