Warriors win program's fourth state championship

WORLAND - Whether it be 1921 or 2021, the boys basketball season always ends the same, the Worland Warriors hoisting a state championship.

For the fourth time in school history (1920, 1921, 2016, 2021), the Worland Warriors added state championship hardware to the WHS trophy case by beating the Mountain View Buffalos 55-49 on March 11 at the Ford Wyoming Events Center in Casper.

"Each loss in that slump prepared us for tonight," said WHS boys basketball coach Aaron Abel. "As we lost those games, it taught us how to when those games. I don't think we win tonight without dropping a couple earlier in the year. It prepared us for how tough this is because it wasn't tough for 11 games. Everyone was playing well, and everyone shot the ball well, and everyone thought this was going to be easy. It's never easy in 3A boys basketball. There's more parity in this league than in any other league."

The parity in 3A boys basketball was clear and present all season long and showed throughout the tournament. Rawlins, the No. 1-seed out of the East and first team to beat Worland this season, went 0-2 at the tournament.

Mountain View was the No. 4-seed coming out of the West and might not have made the state tournament if not for this year's regional format. A case could be made that the final spot would have gone to Powell if things were under the normal format.

But the Buffaloes were there, upsetting Rawlins in the quarterfinals and Buffalo in the semifinals, and they gave Worland everything they could handle.

The 3A title game was a heavyweight bout with 12 lead changes, nine ties and the largest lead being six points by Mountain View. Neither team could gain separation for long before the other made a run.

Just as the Warriors looked to be pulling away, Mountain View's Luke Branson, who led all scorers with 25 points, would bring the Buffaloes within reach of the lead.

Worland trailed 12-9 at the end of the first quarter, regained the lead at the break, 27-25, but lost the lead in the third, trailing 37-36.

With eight minutes to decide the championship, the Warriors and Buffaloes were trading blows, with neither really gaining an edge. That was until Mountain View took a six-point lead, 47-41, with 3:17 remaining.

Undeterred, the Warriors went right at the Buffaloes on their next possession. Senior forward Mack Page drove the lane and, as the Mountain View defense collapsed around him, quickly kicked it out to an open Rudy Sanford on the perimeter. The senior guard snapped the net from deep and cut the Mountain View lead to three, 47-44.

That 3 lit a spark for Worland and their large following of fans who made the trip to Casper. Brock Douzenis forced Branson into a tough shot that bounced off the front of the rim. Sanford came up with the rebound and was later fouled driving to the basket.

Going 1 for 2 at the line, the Warriors were now within two points of the Buffaloes, 47-45, with 2:46 remaining.

Inbounding the ball, Mountain View tried getting the ball to Branson, but Warrior sophomore Court Gonsalez came up with a huge deflection which bounced perfectly to Page just to the left of the basket. Page put a shot up over the stretched hand of Branson and tied the game up at 47-all.

After a Mountain View timeout, the Buffaloes were inbounding the ball on their side of the court when Gonsalez picked off a pass and was fouled by Branson going in for a layup. Gonsalez missed both free throws, leaving things tied at 47.

Off the miss, the Warriors pressure on defense had Mountain View playing faster than usual, that led to an errant pass that Sanford picked off.

Patiently working through their offense, the Warriors searched for the right shot. Gonsalez found Sanford open on the perimeter; the senior pump-faked and drove into the lane.

Powering through the contact, Sanford drew the foul. The ball bounced around on the rim three times before finally dropping through the basket for the and-one, sending the Worland bench and fans into a state of ecstasy and the Mountain View fans into a groaning deflated mood.

Sanford coolly stepped to the line and drained the free throw to put Worland up 50-47 with 1:16 remaining.

Mountain View got to the free-throw line on their next possession, going 1 for 2 and making it 50-48 with the game's final minute approaching.

Running clock, the Warriors worked through their offense. Mountain View's Kolten Roitz poked the ball from Page. Buffalo Hunter Meeks picked up the ball and led the break, but it was short-lived as Gonsalez came from behind and deflected the ball toward Sanford with 30 seconds remaining.

Both Worland and Mountain View went 1 for 2 from the free-throw line during their next possessions, making it 51-49 with under 20 seconds left.

After failing to produce a turnover, the Buffaloes were forced to foul Worland's Carter Clark. The sophomore guard calmly made both free throws to give Worland the 53-49 lead.

Clark's free throws forced Mountain View to take a quick shot, Branson put up a 3 that Gonsalez heavily contested. Douzenis rebounded the miss and was fouled immediately.

Douzenis went 2 for 2, completing Worland's 14-2 run over the final three minutes of the fourth quarter and bring the 3A State championship back home to Worland.

"Mountain View, it's amazing what coach [Dustin] Rees has done with that team this season. We played them in early January and to watch how much they've improved. They beat our pressure all night, and we knew that this game was going to be a grind just like the last two," said Abel.

Branson had an excellent tournament, scoring 30 versus Rawlins, 15 against Buffalo and 25 against Worland. Branson shot 30 percent from 3, yet, during the Buffaloes run at state, shot 46 percent from beyond the arc.

But the defense by Gonsalez in crunch time of the fourth quarter, proved to be the difference for the Warriors, as he took Mountain View's top scoring option out of the game.

"Luke Branson was really incredible, but I thought – with about six minutes to go, we put Court on him, and we denied him. It wasn't perfect and got a couple of fouls, but overall, Court got the stops that we needed to get the win," said Abel.

Page led the Warriors in scoring in the championship game with 23 points, going 8 for 14 from the field with six rebounds and three steals.

Sanford scored 15 points with four rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Finally getting to hold the 3A State championship, after last season's tournament was canceled due to COVID-19, was long over due for the Warriors

"It's crazy; it feels like you're on top of the world. We've worked for it months, and to finally get to this point, it's amazing," said WHS guard Jorey Anderson.

Marcus Wiley added, "It feels amazing to be a part of this team and be with these guys. We've wanted this all season when we didn't get the chance to finish it off last year. We've worked hard every day in practice to get here."

STATE TOURNAMENT RUN

The Warriors run to the championship started with the quarterfinal matchup against the Wheatland Bulldogs.

Winning 63-49, Worland held 3A's leading scorer Kade Pruitt to 21 points, but most of which came when the game was decided.

"We had a pretty good plan for Kade Pruitt. He's the leading scorer in the state, but we also knew that Wheatland didn't have a lot around him. We kept a defender in the paint, and when Pruitt put it on the floor, we just stunted at him and doubled him every time," said Abel.

Page led Worland in scoring with 23 points, shooting 11 for 15 from the field and pulling down 10 rebounds. Sanford added 17 with five rebounds and two steals.

Advancing to the semifinals, the Warriors ran into the Lander Valley Tigers for the fourth time this season. Making it a perfect 4-0, Worland sent the Tigers to the third-place game with a 64-54 win.

Douzenis put together his best game of the season versus the Tigers, which added to an impressive tournament run. His stat line read something similar to Golden State Warrior superstar Draymond Green with 11 points (4/7 FG, 2/3 3pt), 13 rebounds, six assists and two steals.

"Everyone pointed to Mack, and Mack did have a good game. For two years, Mack's been the X-factor and the matchup that they can't guard. The guy who really won us that Lander game was Brock Douzenis. He struggled with his shot for a while, and against Lander, he had 11 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Hit a couple of big 3s for us. The one he hit in the third quarter with about four minutes to go that almost put the game on ice for us."

Abel continued about Douzenis' state tournament play, "He's such an athletic kid, and you saw it as a freshman when he came off the bench for us. I don't think he realized he was in a varsity game and was just happy to be playing basketball. He played with a little more confidence. This year there was some pressure on him, and I think Brock would tell you he struggled with that pressure all season, but in tournament time, he came up big for us."

Page led Worland with 26 points vs. Lander, going 11 for 16 from the field, 4 for 6 from the free-throw line and bring in seven rebounds. Sanford shot 4 for 9 and 3 for 4 free throws for 13 points and had five rebounds and three assists.

THE SLUMP

At the end of January, going into early February, the Warriors experienced their first losses. Over a five-game stretch, the Warriors went 2-3 with losses to Rawlins, Buffalo and Powell, all of which were on the road.

That slump had the Warriors asking questions, but it did not break them, it motivated them.

"We weren't well-versed in close games, and we lost three of them at the wire," said Sanford. "It taught us how to win these games and compete at a higher level, it helped us against Lander and Lyman and helped us through this whole state tournament."

Ultimately that lull had the Warriors prepared for a highly competitive 3A field, where you could have made a championship case for six of the eight teams at state.

"That was good for us," said Page of the Warriors 2-3 stretch. "We knew how it was to be on top, and we knew what it was like not to be on top. We had to fight for everything. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, and that was good for us."

A recap of the Warriors 2021 season will be in next week's edition of the Northern Wyoming News.