BURNS Torrington High School’s girls’ basketball team opened the 2021-22 season with an unbeaten record at the Burns Winter Classic over the weekend.
“Somehow we hoped for that. We were hoping we could get a few minutes for different kids who have never played together before. We had to see where our bench was, ”said coach Jeff Halley. “We haven’t played 3-0 in a while and it feels pretty good to start like that. Our bank was great [Saturday]. You had to be. With all that bad trouble. We got over it. Our little children did a great job. “
The Lady Blazers opened the weekend against 3A East Regional opponents Thermopolis.
Torrington won on Friday morning with 41:23 over the Lady Bobcats.
The Lady Blazers took an 8: 2 lead early in the quarter, but in the second quarter the Thermopolis team beat Thermopolis 16: 3 and went into the locker room at half time with 24: 5.
“We kept them to five points in one half,” said Halley. “Then we got lazy. We put it on cruise control and let it stay. We still had enough of a head start to hold up at 20. “
The teams almost played through in the second half, but the Lady Bobcats had the slight advantage, beating Torrington with an 18-17.
Senior Reece Halley led the team with 12 points, 12 rebounds and three assists, while Senior Avery West added 10 points and eight rebounds.
On Friday evening, the Lady Blazers crowned the evening with an 83:11 win over the Arvada, Colorado Lady Bulldogs.
Torrington won the opening bet and less than five seconds later senior Lauren Orr put in the first two points of the game.
It was the start of 17 points in a row for the Lady Blazers to begin the game.
“I feel sorry for your children. They’re really good kids, but they really don’t know how to play basketball. We could play anyone we brought, ”Halley said. “Even our kids felt bad about the way it was going. We wanted to get better, but we might have scored 90 points in the first half. “
Arvada finally made it onto the scoreboard with 2:35 to go in the first quarter.
With a 25: 4 lead after eight minutes, Torrington extended his lead to 51: 4 at halftime and kept the Lady Bulldogs goalless.
In the second half, Jeff Halley turned the clock game over to the junior varsity squad to end the evening.
In the final 16 minutes, Torrington’s lead continued to grow, beating Arvada 32-7.
The Lady Blazers had 13 players on the scoring column, led by Senior Sierra Allen with 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Halley had 12 points and seven boards. Sophomore Alyssa Albaugh had nine, and junior Marissa Moorehouse had eight.
Torrington forced 36 turnovers, including 24 steals for the win.
On Saturday, the Lady Blazers finished the Winter Classic with a 66-44 win over the Pine Bluffs Lady Hornets in their first street game of the season.
In the first quarter and a half, no team was more than three points ahead.
That was until Torrington finished the second quarter with a 12-0 run over the final 4:40 of half.
“[Pine Bluffs] had many of the same problems as us. Some of their better players had foul problems, ”said Halley. “I knew our bank was better than your bank. We did a good run with them and we did them just as well in the third quarter. “
The Lady Hornets reduced a gap from 13 points to just six in the third quarter, as Torrington had three starters with four fouls each on the bench, but junior Kayla Dreiling made the most of the playing time.
“Kayla Dreiling, once [Pine Bluffs’] a really big girl was out of the game, we forced it there, and she did a great job, and Taryn (Stokes) on the other hand. Even with our two main posts at the bank, they couldn’t stop our little posts. “
They scored seven of their eight points in the third quarter, which allowed Torrington to put the lead back in double digits eight minutes before the end of the game to 48:34.
In the last eight minutes, the Lady Blazers beat Pine Bluffs by 18:10 to give Torrington his first road win of the season.
Halley led the team by 29 points and 12 rebounds, while West added 13 points and Moorehouse 10. Freshman Taryn Stokes scored 11 rebounds.
Torrington (3-0) is going to the Flaming Gorge Classic Basketball Tournament this weekend. The Lady Blazers will meet Class 4A Evanston (0-3) at 4:20 p.m. on Friday, Class 4A Green River (2-1) at 9:28 a.m. and Lyman (3-0) in 1st place 3A. on Saturday at 4:20 p.m.
“We have to get better next week. The little things like the free throws, the layups, the rabbits, we have to do them. We did a lot of good (Saturday) and yesterday, but we could have scored 90 points today if we had made it easy, ”said Halley. “Evanston isn’t the top end of 4A, but they’re still a 4A team. Green River is probably the best team we’ll see this year. You made it to the state semi-finals last year. They like to press. They like walking up and down the floor. Then we play Lyman. We’ll have our hands full. Our goal is to play all summer and see where we sit. “
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