Lady Warriors lose to Powell but show heart in second half

WORLAND — At first it looked like things were going to get really ugly for the Worland Lady Warriors in their 3A Northwest girls basketball contest against the Powell Lady Panthers, but the in the second half the young Lady Warriors grit and ground their way to make things a little closer. Ultimately, they fell 40-30 but their play in that second half could be a building block for their next set of games.

“We needed to knock down more shots in the first half. We had one three in the first half and three in the second. If we hit one or two of those in the first half to help us get in our stuff and give us energy, maybe the game is different, but it was too little too late,” said WHS girls basketball coach Ben Hofmann.

The Lady Warriors trailed 21-9 at the half but in the second half, they turned things around by executing on offense, knocking down three 3-pointers and forcing turnovers on defense. Tymberlynn Crippen led the Lady Warriors with 10 points.

Battling back against a senior-laden team like the Lady Panthers should help boost the Lady Warriors confidence. Now the challenge is to expand 16 minutes of good play into 32.

“The game is 32 minutes I thought we played a good 16 minutes. We played pretty well in the second half and I really think it was a matter of knocking down one or two of those threes in the first half,” said Hofmann. “We’re not that far off, it feels like it at times, but I thought they played really well at times and certainly in the second half played pretty good.

“Denali Jones and McKenna Butte worked really hard on Rachel Bonander, and she’s one of the better post players we’ve got in 3A. I thought they did a good job of being physical, fronting her and making life difficult for her.”

Junior guard Kate Wassum scored five points in Friday’s loss but made her impact felt on the defensive end, racking up a team-high four steals. Wassum’s fearlessness attacking the rim, even though she’s one of the smaller players on the court, also provided a spark for Worland, as the team’s overall offensive aggressiveness improved in the second half.

“We keep losing but our team is just getting stronger and stronger and if I keep giving my all, that shows them [teammates] that we need to keep working harder. And eventually, we’ll come out with a win,” said Wassum. “This week we worked on going to the basket harder and I wanted to show coach that I could do it, even if I got blocked a few times, but on some of the other times I got fouled and was able to get points from that.”

Added Hofmann on Wassum’s play and seemingly infinite supply of stamina, “Her and Casey [Kate’s older sister] the last couple of years, it’s Energizer Bunny with those two. You think Wassum, you think Energizer Bunny. You never question her heart, energy or hustle. Kate brings that every night and really does a good job and finds ways to get us going.”

The Lady Warriors hit the road today for a matchup against the Lovell Lady Bulldogs, tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. at Lovell High School.

“We’ve got to knock down some shots, that’s going to be key. We got to get Darla [Hernandez] going and get her the ball in spots where she can score it. We’ve really got to defend and rebound the basketball, we had a couple letdowns rebounding the basketball that led to some buckets [vs. Powell]. If we can hit some shots, defend and rebound the ball, I think we’ll be good,” said Hofmann.

For Wassum getting out to a better start offensively is the goal for today’s game. “I really want to get us on the scoreboard more. We had a hard time scoring at the beginning of our game [Friday night] but if we can get going earlier we’ll put ourselves in a better spot to win.”