TORRINGTON – The Torrington Lady Blazers came up short against the Chadron (Neb.) Lady Cardinals Saturday evening 47-35 to tip off the 2018-19 season.

The Lady Blazers took a 7-6 lead courtesy of a bucket from freshman Reece Halley with 2:30 remaining in the opening quarter.

It proved to be the only time Torrington led all night.

Chadron responded with a 12-2 run over the next four and a half minutes to take an 18-9 lead.

“We saw some good things and obviously, some things we have to fix,” coach Jeff Halley said. “On ne hand it is frustrating, but on the other hand, we got about six minutes a game out of who have back from last year.”

The Lady Cardinals lead reached double digits late in the second quarter, but the Lady Blazers managed to cut the visitors lead to 26-21 midway through the third quarter before Chadron pulled away for the 12-point win.

“One thing we have to do better at, is we have to want to score. We have a few kids who want the ball and want to shoot, but we need to have eight or nine who want to shoot,” Halley said. “If we are only shooting 40 shots a game and if you shoot 50 percent, which is unheard of, that’s only 40 points. We have to put up 50-60 shots a night. It’ll come. We have kids in whole new roles.”

In all, the Lady Blazers attempted 37 shots, making 35 percent.

Torrington was led by junior forward Sam Hill with 12 points and eight rebounds, while Halley added 10 points and six rebounds.

“It’s going to take some time,” Jeff Halley said. “They played hard and learned some things.”

Torrington heads to Douglas Friday and Saturday. Friday, the Lady Blazers will face Big Piney, and on Saturday, Torrington will face Lander Valley and Wheatland.

“We’ll have a little better look next week with some teams who are just like us, just starting out and are a week or two in,” Jeff Halley said.

He hopes it will be a confidence booster moving forward.

“We played 10-12 kids and they all showed they can help us somewhere,” Jeff Halley said.