I’ll add my two cents to Patrick’s preview for tonight’s Kelly Walsh-Natrona County basketball games at Swede Erickson Thunderbird Gymnasium at Casper College. The girls tip off at 6:15 p.m. and the boys are scheduled for 7:45 p.m.
Don’t count either team out in the girls game. I saw NC (8-6) overcome a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter against Billings (Mont.) Senior, then win overtime in late December. The next day I saw KW (3-9) cut a 12 point deficit down to two points in the fourth quarter before Billings Senior held off the Trojans with late free throws.

This is what NC junior guard Taylor Diehl said about the Fillies comeback:

"We kind of like comebacks. We are kind of into those. We've done that in a lot of games, come back. We don't always pull ahead, but we seem to always do best in the fourth quarter."

Both girls teams are coming off wins, and KW’s 49-38 victory against Star Valley was from behind. The Trojans rallied from 9 points down in the third quarter to beat the Braves.

As for the boys, I’m looking forward to seeing NC’s Michael Dietz and KW’s Cobi Eskew go up against each other. As Patrick mention in his preview Eskew, 6-foot-3, is averaging 18.2 points per game, while Dietz, 6-6, is averaging 18.1 points per game. Both big men put up 25 points in the last games they played, and both made a 3 pointer. Dietz and Eskew can both play on the inside or outside, are good defenders and good passers. If these guys aren’t scoring, you know they are helping their team in others ways.

The Trojan boys are in new territory, coming off their first win of the year — a 61-56 victory against Star Valley on Saturday. KW (1-9) might have some confidence coming into this game because they finally got a win, but it’s hard to be overly confident when you face Natrona County (12-0), the No. 1 team in Class 4A.

I’m looking forward to seeing the atmosphere tonight. This will be the second KW-NC sporting event I’ve seen. I covered the John Miller Memorial wrestling match in December, and crowd was loud and went nuts during a big move and after each match. I expect tonight to be a raucous atmosphere.

The Swede has wireless Internet, so I might give game updates and the final scores on this blog. Stay tuned.

Dave

The Sheridan Broncs boys basketball team is 0-9. I saw the team’s latest loss on Tuesday when it fell to Natrona County 60-46 in Casper. Here is what Sheridan coach Mike Ibach had to say about his team’s losing ways:

“We are young. We start two sophomores and have a junior that starts at point guard that didn’t play much last year. We are not very big, but I thought our team the last three or four games has started to play with more chemistry offensively. We have a tough time sometimes rebounding the basketball, and Natrona’s pressure tonight really bothered us at times…I think we have an up and coming (team). We are a group of young guys, that I think are going to get better, and towards the end we are going to challenge a little bit.

"We have a nice basketball team and we are going to get better and get in the mix towards the end.” 

The Broncs looked good at times against the Mustangs, and they have a few good 3-point shooters. The team, however, did miss a few open layups after breaking Natrona's press.

I was on some rec basketball teams in college (and possibly as a kid) that didn't win a game. That made for some long seasons. Here's to hoping Sheridan ends the year with at least one win.

Dave