Lady Herders eye conference play

Mike Moore photo
Glenrock sophomore Skylar Harford shoots over a Wheatland defender as the final second tick off the clock at last Saturday’s home game against the Lady Bulldogs.

By: 
Joshua Clark joshua@glenrockind.com

The Glenrock girls basketball team split their games in the last week before conference play kicks off, bringing their record to 2-9.
The Lady Herders defeated the Wright Panthers 40-34 Thursday, before falling to Wheatland 57-29 on Saturday.
Glenrock got off to a slow start Thursday in Wright, before turning it on in the second half with improved shooting and ultimately securing a dominant overtime victory.
The Lady Herders were perfect defensively holding the Panthers off the board for the entire overtime period.
Offensively Glenrock was led by Mandi Tvedt with 13 points and Adelaide Williams who put in eight while also grabbing a team-high nine rebounds.
Unfortunately, the girls weren’t able to bring that momentum into Saturday’s match up with the Wheatland Bulldogs.
After a tightly contested first quarter, Wheatland was able to key in on the inexperienced Glenrock team by ramping up the defensive pressure causing turnovers and missed shots.
“The biggest difference was our shooting and turnovers,” head coach Chris Gray said. “The biggest thing we focus on is taking care of the basketball. We’ve been focusing in practice on free throws and shooting. Missed free throws have probably cost us two or three games.”
Glenrock’s turnovers almost doubled from 17 in their win against Wright to 33 in the loss to Wheatland, while the free throw percentage dropped by 20 percent. 
The silver lining on an otherwise disappointing season is that with more experience, the youthful team has the potential to make big strides as the conference games begin next week.
The Herders are led by only one senior in Tvedt and run a starting lineup that features three sophomores. Freshman are taking on role-playing positions to fill in the gaps.
It’s something that may develop into a strength a year or two from now when the group grows together, but the team has been stuck at the bottom end of what can be a constant flux for high school sports as seniors graduate and incoming freshman take their place.
Gray makes sure no matter who’s on the court, the girls leave everything they have on the court.
“Our effort is always good. We play hard,” Gray said. “Defensively we just need to do a better job of getting into the half court and not allowing easy shots.”
For now, what has happened thus far in the season doesn’t matter. Now is time for improvement and putting themselves in the mix against conference opponents.
“We start our conference schedule this week so it’s a big week for us,” the coach said. “We practiced at six in the morning. Our biggest focus is getting out fundamentally, do things right, play hard and take care of business.”
Gray’s girls open their conference schedule Friday on the road against the Lusk Tigers at 5:30 p.m. and host Pine Bluffs Jan. 25 at 4 p.m.

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