TORRINGTON – It was a tail of two games for the Torrington High School girls’ basketball team to start the season.
On Friday, the Lady Blazers overcame a slow start to defeat 3A East Conference foe Thermopolis 59-40 in Burns, but on Saturday, Torrington couldn’t overcome the hot shooting from beyond the arc in a 65-53 loss to Moorcroft.
“(Friday), we locked down their scorers, and today, we never got into that rhythm,” THS coach Jeff Halley said. “That was the difference between (Friday) and (Saturday).”
In the victory over the Thermopolis Lady Bobcats, Torrington turned up the pressure in the second half.
The Lady Blazers found themselves down 24-23 at halftime, getting all their scoring from juniors Sierra Allen and Reece Halley.
“(Friday) was one of those that we took a lot of decent shots but didn’t make very many,” Halley said. “The only thing that kept us in the game was we were scoring in the paint.”
The momentum shifted in Torrington’s favor in the third quarter, as the Lady Blazers dropped 21 points on Thermopolis.
“In the third quarter, we suddenly started recognizing our shooters, and we held their good players to only nine points the entire second half,” Halley said.
When the final horn sounded, Reece Halley tallied 18 points and 17 rebounds, while Allen added 17 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore Marissa Moorehouse tossed 10 points and recorded six steals.
The next day, Torrington led 15-13 after a quarter of play, but the visiting Lady Wolves ended the day 11-of-18 from beyond the 3-point line to pull away for the double-digit victory.
“They are a good 2A school,” Halley said. “They finished third in the state last year. We knew it coming in they love to shoot it. We didn’t guard it well enough early.”
Torrington grabbed an early 8-3 advantage in the first four minutes of the game, but it didn’t take long for Moorcroft to find its shooting stroke.
The Lady Wolves scored the next seven points, but Torrington held a slim two-point margin after one quarter of play.
Moorcroft took the lead for good early in the second quarter.
“We got in a whole and started getting scrappy,” Halley said. “Then we got sloppy.”
That only allowed Moorcroft to pull away for the remainder of the game.
“We have to get better on defense. We have to finish better. When we have a size advantage, we have to dominate,” Halley said. “I thought we did that well (Friday), but today we couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”
Torrington shot only 25% from the floor, while the Lady Wolves connected on 56% of their shot attempts.
For the second time this season, Halley led the team in scoring with 14 points, while senior Michaela Moorehouse added 12. Marissa Moorehouse tossed in 10. Allen led the Lady Blazers with 14 rebounds.
“Thermopolis is a conference school, but like this one, this is a good team,” Halley said. “I would much rather play them than someone who isn’t very good and wouldn’t give you a challenge. They played like a small 3A school. It was good for us.”
Torrington will wrap up the 2020 portion of the schedule at home this weekend against a pair of 3A West Conference opponents.
On Friday, the Lady Blazers host Worland at 5:30 p.m., and on Saturday, the Lyman Lady Eagles come to town for a noon contest.
