The final home game of the season for the Riverton Wolverines lasted a little longer late Thursday night before the Big Red fell to visiting Rock Springs 52-51 in overtime.
For senior Parker Paxton, it was a record-setting night, the quick guard tallied 35 of Riverton’s 51 points in the game and in a post-game ceremony was honored as Riverton High School’s all-time leader scorer, surpassing Willy Noseep who was in attendance for the ceremony.
Riverton dug a hole early in the contest trailing 12-1 to the Tigers, but came to life in the middle period to take a brief three-point lead early in the final period.
Opponents defensive strategy this season has been to shove, trip, pound, and knock around Paxton on the perimeter and Rock Springs did it as well as Star Valley had the week before. Paxton went to the line 16 times, converting 13.
The game saw the rise of a couple of future starts in Malachi Smith and Branden Monroe. Riverton senior Darrick DeVries was in foul trouble early and picked up his fourth foul in the second half. He said something to an official and was hit with a technical foul, which counts in a player’s personal foul count, and left the game with this fifth foul.
Smith had played earlier in the game but had an excellent second-half rebounding, altering shots and using his 6-4 frame and long arms to dominate the paint defensively.
Monroe has been a junior varsity starter this season but his minutes at the varsity level were crucial with Hunter Hauck also in foul trouble and eventually fouling hot. Monroe handled the ball without a turnover, hit a close-range shot, and converted both of his free throw attempts.
The game was tied nine times with an equal number of lead changes.
Rock Springs worked for the last shot in the final 30 seconds of regulation but Hernandez took a charge giving Riverton one last shot with 2.8 seconds on the clock.
Paxton had a good look from 32 feet away but the shot glanced off the rim and the game went into an extra four-minute period.
In the overtime, Riverton’s only points came at the line, four from Paxton and a pair from Monroe.
Rock Springs held a tenuous one point lead with eight seconds remaining in overtime. They denied Paxton the ball and Smith’s 23-foot attempt was just inches long, bouncing off the far side of the rim.
RIVERTON 10 17 11 7 6 – 51
ROCK SPRINGS 21 7 9 8 7 – 52
Riverton – Darrick DeVries 1 0-0 2, Ty Sheets (2) 0-0 6, Brodie Dale 1-4 1, Parker Paxton 5 (4) 13-16 35, Monroe 1 2-2 4, Smith 3-6 3. Totals 7 (6) 19-28 51
Rock Springs – Stauffer (2) 1-2 7, Patterson 2 1-3 7, Anderson 4 (1) 5-8 16, Okere 4 1-2 9, Newman 3 (1) 2-5 11, Eddy 1-2 1, James (1) 0-0 3. Totals 13 (5) 11-20 52