TORRINGTON - The Torrington girls basketball team grabbed a pair of 3A East conference victories against Wheatland (55-51) and Rawlins (55-48) to improve to 3-3 in conference play and 9-10 overall.
“This was a big weekend for us,” Torrington coach Jeff Halley said. “Finally, being at home really gave us a shot in the arm as we pulled down two big wins.”
At 3-3, the Blazers sit second in the east quadrant behind only 6-0 Douglas and have essentially a two-game lead on Wheatland (2-4), due to the fact that Torrington swept the Bulldogs in the regular season.
On Friday, both Torrington and Wheatland got off to blistering starts, scoring a combined 47 points in the first eight minutes of regulation.
Torrington ran out to a 25-22 lead at the end of the first, behind nine first-quarter points from Taylor Walsh. The junior knocked down a pair of three-pointers, as the Blazers led by as many as seven in the period.
“This was maybe one of our best games of the season,” Halley said. “We struggled shooting the ball at times again, but there were stretches that we looked real good.”
Wheatland closed the quarter on a 9-5 and opened the second with back-to-back three’s to take their first lead of the night, 28-25. Adia Sherbeyn answered for the Blazers, hitting four straight free throws to push the Blazers back out front, 29-28 with 1:56 left in the first half.
Logan Murphy connected on 2-of-4 at the charity stripe and Walsh hit 1-of-2 to round out the scoring in the first half and Torrington took a 31-28 lead into the locker room.
The Bulldogs notched the first bucket of the third period, but Torrington answered with an 8-0 run, highlighted by four points from Murphy.
Murphy’s bucket with 2:32 remaining in the third gave Torrington its largest lead of the night, 43-32.
The Blazers carried a 45-39 into the final eight minutes, but Wheatland would not go away.
The Bulldogs scored seven of the first nine points in the fourth period to cut the Blazers’ lead to 47-46. After a Torrington timeout, the Blazers got a pair of free throws from Murphy and Shelbey Prusia and a bucket from Sydney Hill to push out to a 51-46 lead. Savannah May’s three-pointer with 1:17 remaining cut the Torrington lead to 55-51, but that’s as close as Wheatland could get.
Murphy notched a team-high 19 points and 11 rebounds to lead the charge for the Blazers, while Walsh ended with 12 points and four assists. Hill chipped in 11 points and seven boards, Shelbey Prusia added seven points and six rebounds, and Sherbeyn finished with six points, six rebounds, four blocked shots and three assists.
Torrington hit on 17-of-50 from the floor, including 3-of-6 from three-point range, and were 18-of-32 at the free-throw line in the victory.
Against Rawlins, Torrington used a 21-point second quarter to open up a 10-point halftime lead and never looked back en route to the victory.
“Against Rawlins, our pressure defense finally showed back up in a big way and we turned them over and got a lot of easy looks from the defense,” Halley said. “When we can do that, we can usually score a lot of points.”
Torrington ran out to a 6-1 lead in the first 3:34 of the opening period, but the Outlaws answered with a 6-0 run of their own to taka a 7-6 lead with 1:46 left in the first. The Blazers closed the period outscoring Rawlins 6-2 and grabbed a 12-9 lead.
After an Outlaw bucket to open the scoring in the second, Hill’s old-fashioned three-point play ignited a 5-0 run by the Blazers and Torrington looked to gain control.
Rawlins ended the small run by Torrington, but the Blazers weren’t done.
Hill scored six of the next eight Torrington points to push out to a 24-14 lead with 3:30 remaining in the half and the Blazers would maintain that 10-point advantage into halftime.
Torrington extended to a 45-33 lead at the end of the third and held off a furious rally by the Outlaws in the final three minutes of regulation. Murphy scored seven of her team-high 15 points in the fourth and helped the Blazers extend out to a 51-33 lead, Torrington’s largest lead of the evening.
Murphy again led the way for Torrington with 15 points, 10 rebounds and four steals, while Hill added 14 points and seven rebounds. Five of Hill’s seven boards came on the offensive side.
Walsh ended with nine points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals, while Sherbeyn had seven points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals. Chrissy Lira chipped in six points, while Prusia and Renee Cline added two points apiece.
Torrington hit on 22-of-56 from the field and 11-of-27 from the free-throw line in the victory. The Blazers tallied 18 steals and committed just 12 turnovers.
“The win over Wheatland was really big as it wrapped up the No. 2 seed in our quad for regionals,” Halley said. “I like the way our team is playing right now and keep improving each week heading toward regionals. It should be a fun last few weeks to the season.”
