It was a disappointing end to the season for the West 2-A Regional champion Wind River Cougars with a semi-final loss to Pine Bluffs 69-57 and a 76-62 loss to Tongue River in the third-place game Saturday afternoon.
The Cougars were plagued by fouls in both games with the Hornets and Eagles combining for 73 free throw attempts in the two games, and the Cougars just going to the line a paltry 12 times.
Wind River easily outscored both teams from the floor, but 21 made free throws compared to five for the Cougars in the Pine Bluffs game, and 23 made by the Eagles with just a pair by Wind River was the difference in both games.
Friday in semi-final action, the Hornets took an early and the Cougars never caught up.
Seniors Jaycee Herbert, Wylie Shearer, and Brayden Leonhardt paced the Wind River effort with 20, 14, and 11 points respectively.
Saturday, The Cougars were tied at 40 at the half, but a 19-7 advantage in the third period was the difference for Tongue River.
Herbert, Shearer, and Leonhardt again led Wind River with 18, 16, and 14 points.
Wind River 8 12 21 16 – 57
Pine Bluffs 20 16 22 11 – 69
Wind River – Brayden Leonhardt 1 (3) 0-0 11, Hunter Walker (2) 0-0 6, Jaycee Herbert 8 (1) 1-2 20, Calder Johnson 1 0-0 2, Wambli Romero 1 0-0 2, Wylie Shearer 5 4-6 14, Rowdy Shearer 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 (6) 5-7 57
Pine Bluffs – Jacob Slade (2) 4-5 10, Justin Lerwick 1 1-2 3, Ryan Fornstrom 6 8-11 20, Stuart Lerwick 7 (1) 8-13 25, Shawn Shmidl 1 0-0 2, Carsten Freeburg (1) 0-0 3, Collin Jensen 1 0-0 2, Dalton Shaefer (1) 1-2 4. Totals 15 (6) 21-31 69
Wind River 20 20 7 15 – 62
Tongue River 23 17 19 17 – 76
Wind River – Leonhardt 1 (4) 0-0 14, Walker 1 (1) 0-0 5, Herbert 5 (2) 0-1 16, Johnson 1 0-0 2, Romero 1 (1) 0-0 5, Shearer 5 (2) 2-4 18, Shearer 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 (10) 2-5 62
Tongue River – Caleb Kilbride 2 (1) 3-9 10, Connor Cummins (2) 0-0 6, Javin Walker 1 (3) 3-3 14, Logan Rosics 2-2 2, Brant Bockman 5 5-6 15, Nate Guimond 1 2-4 4, Al Spotted 2 (1) 1-2 8, Tavis Aksamit 1-4 1, Coltoer Hanft 5 6-11. Totals 16 (7) 23-41 76