Lady Warriors fall to Lady Trailblazers 39-32

TORRINGTON - The Worland Lady Warriors have been looking to find their offensive flow most of the season and during this week's practice that mission was dealt a setback with an injury to starting sophomore guard BreAnna Parra, the team's leading scorer at 7.3 points per game.

Friday night in Torrington the Lady Warriors (3-9 overall, 0-3 3A East: West division) played in their first game without Parra against the Lady Trailblazers. The game started well for Worland scoring 12 points in the first but the second and third quarters brought an offensive drought that ultimately led to a 39-32 loss.

"We really got into trouble with Casey [Wassum] picking up her third foul in the first half that really set us back. Not having Bre a strong ball handler definitely hurt us. I think Tymberlynn [Crippen] and Kate [Wassum] are going to be up to the challenge, but they're still young and a little inexperienced, so if they start picking up the experience now it will be good for them," said WHS girls basketball coach Ben Hofmann.

Senior Saige Jones led the Lady Warriors with a 12-point and 11-rebound night while McKenna Butte added nine points.

Worland held a 12-5 lead midway through the first quarter, yet Torrington (6-8 overall, 2-1 3A East: West division) closed out the quarter on a 7-0 run. Making matters worse the Lady Trailblazers extended that run into the second and third quarters, making it a 27-5 run in total after they fell behind by seven.

Adding frustration to the Lady Trailblazers run was the fact that the Lady Warriors were executing their offense but just not finishing the inside shots.

"We missed a lot of shots and that hurts us. Especially in that second quarter when we went on a drought we got good shots in the offense they just didn't go in. It's been a recurring thing for us and something we have to keep working on in practice," said Hofmann.

The Lady Warriors did have the positive of making an offensive push in the fourth as they attempted to rally. After a timeout by Hofmann at the 4:46 mark the Lady Warriors made a 12-3 run to cut into the lead. They also held Torrington to under 40 points, which is the mark of a good defense.

Worland just needs to continue the search for their offensive kickstart. They will have one more opportunity this week to do so when they face the Wheatland Lady Bulldogs today.

"If we're not going to score we have to defend. We defended in stretches and then we had some stretches we didn't. Again, it's not a defensive issue it's an offensive issue. We've held a lot of teams under 40 a night and that should get you to win a lot of ball games, that's a pretty stingy defense. We're just not scoring enough to win these games," said Hofmann.

Today the Lady Warriors head to Wheatland to take on the Lady Bulldogs (2-11, 1-3 3A East: East division) at 2 p.m.

"We're struggling, they're struggling. I don't know what we're going to get [today]. The good thing is that we get to play again. I'd hate to have this one sitting in my throat for a week. I'm grateful that we get to play another one over in Wheatland," said Hofmann.