Lady Warriors pick up first victories of the season

WORLAND – Going 2-1 at the Big Horn Basin Classic held at Worland High School and Hot Springs County High School on Jan. 13-14, the Worland Lady Warriors grabbed their first wins of the season.

The Lady Warriors defeated the 2A Wind River Lady Cougars, 57-46, and 2A No. 2 Rocky Mountain Lady Grizzlies, 36-31, on Jan. 13 at WHS.

The wins over Wind River and Rocky Mountain won Pool A for Worland and pitted them again Lovell, the winner of Pool B, on Jan. 14.

Unfortunately for the Lady Warriors, a slow start hurt the cause as they fell to Lovell 45-25.

While the loss to Lovell was disappointing, the Lady Warriors did plenty of positive things but had too many self-inflicted, but fixable, mistakes.

"It was a combination of a few different things," said WHS girls basketball coach Mark Mortimer when talking about his team's struggles vs. Lovell. "When we left the floor, I was more disappointed with how we played than I really wanted to be. Then when I was doing the stats and slowing things down on film and seeing the little things we missed. We probably missed 12 layups in the game, and four or five were uncontested. We shot 47% from the free-throw [line], and we really struggled in areas we usually don't. We gave up 11 offensive rebounds, and we've been good at not allowing second-chance points."

Mortimer continued, "When you look at the film, we did a great job in the halfcourt. Lovell shot out to a 17-5 lead because we had a tough time against their man full-court sets. That's something we'll continue to work on this week because we'll see it from both Lovell, again, and Powell. They're athletic, quick teams, and we've got to do what we can to get the ball up the floor."

Lovell won the Big Horn Basin Classic, beating Powell 44-22 in Thermopolis on Saturday.

The leading scorers for Worland in their three games last week were Yahaira Aguayo with 17 against Wind River, Elli Aguayo with 12 points versus Rocky Mountain and Elli Aguayo with six against Lovell.

Worland didn't get a fourth game, but they made improvements in their final tune-up before their conference schedule. Their perimeter defense bounced back after a tough showing at the Winter Classic in Pinedale two weeks ago.

Offensively, the Lady Warriors improved by getting more transition looks and easy shots around the basket.

"I thought we did a really good job in all three games of creating turnovers. We got better looks in our offense with breakaway layups and shots close to the basket. It was nice to have those inside looks.

"I've felt good about our halfcourt defense. The interior, we do a nice job of taking care of that with the kids we rotate in at the post position. We're a pretty physical team, and we don't see teams get many shots in there, most times. We're good at holding teams to one shot. With our perimeter defense, we did a better job with our rotations and getting out on closeouts and chasing shooters off the line. Rocky took zero 3s, which was nice for us," said Mortimer.

Helping lead the way on defense was junior guard Elli Aguayo. Against Rocky Mountain, Aguayo led Worland in steals and was a menace to the Rocky guards all game long.

"I think you see a lot of maturity as far as from last year to this year. She does a really good job of getting in position to get steals and deflections and stay out of foul trouble. That's been really big for us. We have other guards who step in at 1, but they feed a lot off of what Ellie does," said Mortimer.

Also helping the Lady Warriors off the bench has been Madilyn Glanz. The sophomore guard has provided a boost for the Lady Warriors on both ends of the court.

Glanz led the Lady Warriors in steals versus Lovell with five.

"Madi, we try to use off the bench, she's 100 mph everywhere she goes. She gives us a lot of energy defensively, and we can throw her right into traps. She can score, and as time goes on, she'll have more confidence with our offensive sets. She's definitely been a bonus for us off the bench," said Mortimer.

This week the Lady Warriors begin their conference schedule with two home games against 3A Northwest rivals. Friday, they host the Lovell Lady Bulldogs at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, the Powell Lady Panthers come to town for a 2:30 p.m. showdown.

Between Worland, Lovell, Powell and Thermopolis, the 3A Northwest is up for grabs. Considering how evenly matched the teams are, protecting home court will be a must to take the division.

"That's what it came down to last year, and it's going to be very similar this year," said Mortimer about protecting their home court and finding a way to win on the road. "We're excited about playing these two teams at home.

"We had a great atmosphere here at home this year for the tournament. We fed off our home fans for our games last week. Unfortunately for the boys team, they had one game canceled, but they were back in the gym supporting our team that night against Rocky. I think we're going to have good crowds this Friday and Saturday for both boys and girls. Those are big games in our conference for both teams. It's going to be a lot of fun."

Having already played Lovell, the tournament game doesn't count toward the conference record, the Lady Warriors know what they need to do to secure the win on Friday night.

Powell will pressure Worland just as Lovell did, and it will be vital for them to limit their turnovers and prevent Powell from getting those easy points off turnovers.

"The keys for Lovell are ball security. We have to do a better job with the full-court man we saw against them. Offensively, the kids got too rushed because of the pressure and made a few uncharacteristic passes and shots. We'll clean those things up this week and go from there.

"Against Powell, they're so fast and quick that they want to full-court pressure people all over the floor this year. That's the mode we're going into; we want to apply pressure, force turnovers and convert off those turnovers. We have to take care of the ball against Powell. They jumped out on a bunch of teams with their pressure," said Mortimer.

NO. 3 WARRIORS WIN BIG HORN BASIN CLASSIC

The Worland Warriors won the Big Horn Basin Classic boys basketball tournament in Powell and Cowley on Jan. 13-14.

The Warriors only had one game in pool play due to Glenrock missing the tournament because of poor road conditions. The Warriors beat 2A Rocky Mountain 78-39 to win Pool A. They matched up against Lovell, the winner of Pool B in Cowley, on Jan. 14 and won 56-39.

Advancing to the championship, the No. 3 Warriors faced No. 2 Lander Valley. The Warriors got by Lander 66-43 to win the Big Horn Basin Classic for the second season in a row.

The Warriors next games are their first home games of the season. In their season-opener on Friday, they host Lovell at 7 p.m. at WHS. Then on Saturday, No. 4 Powell makes the trip to Worland to take on the Warriors at 4 p.m.