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    Cougars repeat as 2-A West Champs

    Wind River won their second consecutive West 2-A Regional Championship over their Fremont County rivals the Shoshoni Wranglers 55-37 at Wolverine Gym. It was the second year the two teams met for the regional crown with the same result.

    Shoshoni opens state tournament play at Casper College at noon on Thursday against Tongue River. Wind River has the late game against Wright at 9 pm also at Casper College.

    Trey Fike drove against Brayden Leonhardt and Kyzaia Jones – {h/t Randy Tucker}

    Wind River arrived after a harrowing 83-81 overtime win over the Kemmerer Rangers. The Cougars didn’t waste much time in Friday night’s semi-final with Greybull rolling over the Buffs 82-53.

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    Shoshoni opened the tournament with a 61-41 win over Wyoming Indian then escaped in a battle with St. Stephen’s 58-52 to advance to the championship tilt.

    Saturday’s game saw the Cougars jump to an early lead and never look back behind the continued outside shooting excellence of senior guard Brayden Leonhardt. Leonhardt ripped the nets for four 3-pointers against Shoshoni but was even more impressive in a 25-point outburst against Greybull where he hit seven shots from beyond the 3-point arc.

    Jaycee Herbert scored against Greybull – {h/t Randy Tucker}

    The title game featured two teams that have played each other every year since 5th grade and the familiarity was both a blessing and a curse to the style of play.

    Wind River’s leading scorer on the season, Wylie Shearer had a year low four points against the Wranglers, and Shoshoni’s floor leader, Alex Mills tallied just eight.

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    Friday was a different story for Shearer where he lead a ferocious Cougar onslaught in the opening minutes to finish with a game-high 28 against Greybull. Shearer opened on a tear, hitting a pair of treys, scoring off pull-up jumps, and driving finger roll layups to blow open the game early.

    The stunned Buffs never got back into the game.

    Shohsoni’s Alex Mills deflected a shot by Jaycee Herbert – {h/t Randy Tucker}

    Shoshoni’s stat line reflected the high-paced, hard-hitting style that Wind River relies on and senior Trey Fike was the only Wrangler in double figures with 16. The normally hot mid-range shooting guard hit only three shots on the game, but spent a lot of time on the floor after hard fouls and converted 10 of 11 attempts from the free throw line.

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    St. Stephen’s advanced to the semi-final game with Shoshoni after a scrappy win over a solid Rocky Mountain squad 58-53.

    Caydn Lonedog pulled up for a jump shot over Cannon Campbell – {h/t Randy Tucker}

    The Wranglers edged the Eagles by two points a couple of weeks ago in Shoshoni and this game was as close as the first meeting.

    After an even opening period, the Wranglers pulled ahead by five, 31-26 at the half with Mills and Fike each tallying 3-point shots, and hitting seven of 11 free throw attempts on the period.

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    St. Stephen’s closed to a single point a couple of times but couldn’t gain the lead and the Wranglers held on with shots from the perimeter.

    Tyren Ridgely got off ahot against tight defense by Alex Mills and Cannon Campbell – {h/t Randy Tucker}

    Early in the game, Shoshoni ran a pick-and-roll play off the high post, but the Eagles figured out the play, jumping the rolling player for five steals in the second and third periods that eliminated that part of the Wrangler offense.

    The Eagles were cold from the perimeter, with Cayden Lonedog hitting the only trey of the game.

    Alex Mills worked inside against Lawrence Jenkins – {h/t Randy Tucker}

    Tyren Ridgely led the Eagles with 18 points, with almost all of them coming on hard-working spin moves, fadeaways, or power steps close to the basket. Lawrence Jenkins had 17 all on mid-range pull-up jumpers, offensive putbacks, or power steps close to the basket.

    Shoshoni was led by the familiar duo of Mills and Fike with 20 and 14 points respectively. Mills had three 3-pointers, and Fike one.

    The big difference in the game for the Wranglers came from 6-2 sophomore post Quinton Clark who tallied near double figures in rebounding and scored 13 points.

    Wind River 18 10 18   9 – 55

    Shoshoni       8 10   6 13 – 37

    Wind River – Brayden Leonhardt 2 (4) 1-3 19, Hunter Walker 4 0-0 8, Mato Amos 1 0-0 2, Jaycee Herbert 4 1-2 9, Remington Herbert 0-2 0, Darian Perry 0-1 0, Wambli Romero 4 0-0 8, Wylie Shearer 1 2-2 4, Kyzaia Jones 1 0-0 2, Rowdy Shearer 2 1-1 5. Totals 19 (4) 5-10 55

    Shoshoni – Alex Mills 1 (1) 3-6 8, Aidan Jarvis 2 (1) 0-0 7, Trey Fike 3 10-11 16, Quinton Clark 0- 3 0, Braxton Mills 1 1-4 3, Oakley Hicks (1) 0-1 3. Totals 7 (3) 14-24 37

    Wind River  27 13 20 22 – 82

    Greybull         9 23 13   8 – 53

    Wind River – Brayden Leonhardt 1 (7) 2-2 25, Hunter Walker 1 (1) 2-2 7, Mato Amos 1 0-0 2, Jaycee Herbert 4 1-1 9, Calder Johnson 1 0-0 2, Darian Perry 1-3 1, Wambli Romero (1) 0-0 3, Juaquin Stevens 1 0-0 2, Wylie Shearer 6 (3) 6-6 27, Rowdy Shearer 2 0-0 4. Totals 17 (13) 12-14 82

    Greybull – Hunt 0-1 0, Henderson 1 (3) 0-0 11, Reece 2 (1) 0-0 7, Cooper 5 3-4 13, Wright 1 4-5 6, Rodriguez 2 (2) 4-6 14, Diaz-Rios 1 0-1 2. Totals 12 (6) 11-17 53

    Shoshoni        12 19 13 14 – 58

    St. Stephen’s 13 13 12 14 –  52

    Shoshoni – Alex Mills 1 (3) 9-13 20, Aidan Jarvis (1) 0-0 3, Trey Fike 3 (1) 5-8 14, Quinton Clark 6 1-4 13, Braxton Mills 1 (1) 3-5 8, Oakley Hicks 0-2 0. Totals 11 (6) 18-32 58

    St. Stephen’s – Cayden Lonedog 1 (1) 4-8 9, Aynjle Monroe 3 0-0 6, Stephen Lonedog 1 0-0 2, Lawrence Jenkins 7 3-3 17, Cyrus Tindell 0-2 0, Tyren Ridgley 9 0-1 18. Totals 21 (1) 7-14 52

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