If you can’t win it all, you might as well take care of a team that stopped you from reaching the regional finals, and in the process, bring home a little hardware from the state tournament.
The Lady Cougars of Wind River avenged a one-point semi-final loss in Riverton a week ago against Kemmerer with a 55-49 win over the Lady Rangers in the consolation finals.
Wind River dropped an opening-round game to Lingle-Ft. Laramie 48-32 at Casper College on Thursday, then ended Burns season 54-48 Friday morning.
Consolation championship games are the only ones besides the state title itself that allows a team to win two in a row in the state tournament, and only one of the three Saturday games that ends in a trophy.
The game started slowly, with neither team lighting it up offensively.
The Lady Cougars relied on midrange outside shooting with Natalie Walker and Jonae Spoonhunter hitting jump shots and Allison Tidzump posting up strong inside to build a 29-17 lead with 5:51 left in the opening half.
Though the Lady Rangers came within a single point twice in the second half, they were never able to regain the lead.
Delaney Gambler continued an excellent state tournament with a turnaround jumper followed by another post up from Tidzump and the Lady Cougars were up by eight after holding off the Kemmerer surge.
An arching 3-pointer by Karina Frederick opened the final period with perhaps the best play of the game coming three minutes later when Tidzump ripped a cross key pass to Frederick on the back side for an uncontested layup.
The play kept the Lady Cougars ahead but Kemmerer chipped to a 49-45 advantage on a pair of free throws after Jenkins fouled out.
The game devolved into a constant march to the free throw line in the final 31 seconds of the game with Wind River hitting four of eight attempts and Kemmerer just one of two after the Lady Rangers began fouling to get the ball.
Spoonhunter paced Wind River with 16 points, Tidzump scored 10 and Frederick nine.
WIND RIVER 12 10 15 18 – 55
KEMMERER 8 7 16 18 – 49
Wind River – Karina Frederick 2 (1) 2-2 9, Natalie Walker 2 (1) 1-2 8, Amanda Jenkins 1 0-0 2, Jonae Spoonhunter 5 6-8 16, Madisyn Arneach 2 0-0 4, Allison Tidzump 4 2-3 10, Delaney Gambler 3 0-0 6. Totals 19 (2) 11-16 55
Kemmerer – Natasha Martinez 1 6-10, Ella Thatcher 2 2-3 6, Crystin Skidmore 3 (2) 10-14 22, Sophie Archibald 2 5-6 9, Tyler Thatcher 1 2-4 4. Totals 9 (2) 25-39 49