THS girls win home opener, fall at Douglas

Andrew Towne
Posted 1/22/20

DOUGLAS – The Torrington High School girls’ basketball team knocked off the Mitchell, Neb., Tigers 56-50 but fell on the road to WyoPreps.com Class 3A No. 1-ranked Douglas Lady Bearcats, 69-28.

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THS girls win home opener, fall at Douglas

Posted

DOUGLAS – The Torrington High School girls’ basketball team knocked off the Mitchell, Neb., Tigers 56-50 but fell on the road to WyoPreps.com Class 3A No. 1-ranked Douglas Lady Bearcats, 69-28.

On Friday, the Lady Blazers had a trio of players score in double-figures en route to the six-point home victory.

Sophomore Reece Halley led the team with 13 points and eight rebounds, while junior Avery Fox added 12 points. Sophomore Mattie Jones tossed in 11.

“It has been a long time since we have pulled out a W against Mitchell. We didn’t have our best game of the season. We didn’t shoot particularly well, and our defense wasn’t where it normally is,” THS coach Jeff Halley said. “We found a way to get the win on our first home game. I was proud of how the girls kept working even when things weren’t always going the right direction.”

The Lady Blazers jumped out to a 15-9 lead after eight minutes and pushed the lead to 32-19 at the half, but over the final 16 minutes, the visiting Tigers chipped away at the deficit, outscoring Torrington 31-24.

The next day, Torrington came out and grabbed an early 11-8 lead in the closing moments of the first quarter before the Lady Bearcats took over.

“Our first quarter, we played well,” Halley said. “Shots were falling, playing good defense, rebounding, overall doing things right against a good team.”

But things began to change in the second quarter.

“We were still right there with them, but the end of the second and the third, their defensive pressure started to get to us, and we started rushing our shots,” Halley said. “Then they pulled away in the second half.”

Over the first four minutes of the second quarter, Douglas went on a 14-2 run to take 24-13 lead.

The Lady Bearcats continued to dominate into the second half, holding Torrington scoreless for a more than five-minute stretch in the frame.

“If we can build on the first half and not dwell on the second, we will continue to be a pretty good basketball team,” Halley said.

In the final eight minutes, the Lady Blazers only scored two points, and Douglas pushed its lead to as many as 41 with 3:19 left in the game, kicking in the running clock for the remainder of the game.

“Douglas is No. 1 and only lost two games in three years for a reason,” Halley said. “The didn’t even have their 6-foot, 4-inch girl (Allyson Fertig), but they rest of them have learned how to win and how to go hard for 32 minutes.”

Halley led the team with 11 points and eight rebounds, while senior Chloe Krick added six.

The Lady Blazers host Wheatland on Friday at 5:30 p.m. and travel to Burns on Saturday for a 6 p.m. contest.