Laramie Girls Blast Central, While the Boys Drop Second Straight

Friday night was a split on the basketball court for Laramie High School as they hosted Cheyenne Central.

The Laramie girls prevailed 68-50 over the Indians. The Plainsmen lost to No. 5 Cheyenne Central, 64-53.

Both LHS teams are now 8-5 on the season, but the girls are 1-1 in conference games, while the boys dropped to 0-2.

Laramie Lady Plainsmen

LHS got off to a good start before Central rallied, but Laramie was too much in the second half.

The Lady Plainsmen got eight first-quarter points from Addie Forry and led 19-8 at the end of the frame. The Indians responded with a 17-point second quarter and trimmed Laramie’s lead to 31-25 at halftime.

After a pair of free throws by Central cut it to 31-27, LHS went on a 19-0 run in the third quarter. That made it 50-27. The Indians got it down to 14 in the fourth, but that’s as close as they would get.

Morgann Jensen had a career-high 21 points and six rebounds to lead Laramie. Kylin Shipman added 16 points, which included three 3-pointers in the third quarter. Forry and Janey Adair scored 12 points each.

Laramie shot 44 percent in the game, and thanks to turnovers, they took 21 more shots than Central.

Head coach Terrance Reese was impressed with his team’s play.

“If we get away from these lulls that we have, I think we’ll be alright. I thought the way we came out (was good). The way we started the game, I thought that was phenomenal. The way we came out of the locker room (at halftime) was phenomenal. The girls are really playing well. They played together. We’ve been stressing playing together, and I thought we did that tonight.”

Laramie plays only one game this week. It is at Cheyenne South on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Laramie Plainsmen

Cheyenne Central jumped out to a 14-0 lead last Friday night and held off a Plainsmen comeback in an 11-point victory.

The Indians got three triples from Isaiah Rigg in the first half and took advantage of turnovers by LHS. They led 36-18 at halftime. The lead grew to 31 points in the third quarter before Laramie made a push. The Plainsmen outscored Central 21-8 in the fourth, but it was too little, too late.

Nathanial Talich scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Indians.

Karson Busch had 14 points to pace three LHS boys in double figures. Levi Brown added 13 points, and Diego Medina contributed 11.

Laramie head coach Jim Shaffer knew the slow start hurt his ball club. He agreed with too many turnovers and a lack of focus plagued them for a second straight game.

“I agree 100 percent with that. I would say that last 12-14 minutes we played really good basketball. I’m proud as heck of our kids for fighting and competing and getting back in it. You get down whatever we were down, 25 (points) or whatever it was at one point, it’s pretty easy to give up the ship and let it get really ugly. It wasn’t like we were doing it against their subs, they had their guys still in. We figured it out offensively a little bit, got a lot more aggressive, looked to attack the rim, and just played basketball. I feel really good about that last 12 minutes.”

Shaffer knows now they’ve got to find out how they play an entire game like that.

The Plainsmen play at Cheyenne South on Thursday at 7 p.m.