It’s always good to shoot in your own gym, and the Riverton Wolverines used that home field advantage throughout the game Tuesday evening at Wolverine Gym, running away from their Fremont County rival the Lander Tigers, 65-37 behind nine 3-point shots spread among six different players.
The win moves the Wolverines to 12-2 on the season, while the Tigers drop to 8-4 with the loss.
Riverton came out blazing in the opening minutes with treys from Jason Vincent, Parker Paxton, and Ty Sheets to build a quick 11-2 lead.
Lander head coach Stuart Mullins called a timeout with 3:26 remaining in the opening period to calm his team, and the Tigers responded with 6-3 senior Brenon Stauffenberg tallying all seven first period points for Lander on a follow shot a 3-pointer, and a pair of free throws.
The Tiger rally continued in the second period behind treys from Stauffenberg and Parker Sixbey to give Lander a brief lead at 19-18 late in the half. Riverton recovered to take a 22-19 advantage at the intermission.
The Wolverines have been a third period team all season and that trend erupted with 21 points and clamp-down defense that kept the Tiger offense sidelined on almost every possession.
Abe Lopez scored on a drive for the Tigers on their opening possession to cut the lead to 22-21, but the nets went silent for the next seven minutes aside from three Stauffenberg free throws after he was fouled on a shot from beyond the arc.
Riverton’s offense had no problem scoring, with a rain of 3-point bombs coming from Sheets, Paxton and Eli Lucas, and steals with full court drives by Vincent on a 15-0 Wolverine run to end the third quarter.
The Tigers opened up a bit in the final minutes with Peyton Bell, Talon Whelan, and Stauffenberg all hitting 3-point shots, but Riverton answered, and gave a little more back after each long range score.
Dre’Vin Monroe recovered a loose ball under pressure from Lander defenders Talon Whelan, Brae’don Lincoln, and Bennett Washburn
Darrick DeVries, playing stellar defense, but not scoring at his usual pace came to life with a follow shot, and a trey, along with Paxton’s final 3-pointer of the game and a sudden surge of offense from Nick McIntosh who entered the game and promptly scored five points on a 3-point shot and a jumper in the key.
Paxton paced Riverton with 16 points, Vincent tallied 13 and DeVries finished with nine.
For the Tigers, Stauffenberg led them with 14 points and Lopez finished with a dozen.
Riverton has a major challenge this Saturday when they play the top-ranked Cheyenne East Thunderbirds on the road in the Capital City.
Lander returns to conference play at Pinedale on Friday then hosts Lyman Saturday.
Riverton 13 9 21 22 – 65
Lander 7 12 5 13 – 37
Riverton – Jason Vincent 5 (1) 0-0 13, Darrick DeVries 3 (1) 0-0 9, Ty Sheets (2) 0-0 6, Nick McIntosh 1 (1) 0-0 5, Dre’Vin Monroe 2-2 2, Kade Gabrielson 1 1-2 3, Parker Paxton 3 (3) 1-1 16, Nathan Hutchison 2 2-2 6, Eli Lucas 1 (1) 0-0 5. Totals 16 (9) 6-7 65
Lander – Keiton Iron Eyes 0-2 0, Peyton Bell (1) 0-0 3, Parker Sixbey (1) 0-0 3, Talon Whelan (1) 0-0 3, Brae’don Lincoln 1 0-0 2, Bennett Washburn 0-4 0, Brenon Stauffenberg 1 (2) 6-7 14, Abe Lopez 3 (1) 3-5 12. Totals 5 (6) 9-18 37