by nathan oster
For the Greybull Buffs, the goals heading into last weekend were simply to keep winning conference games and building momentum for the Class 2A West Regional later this month.
While they faltered a bit on the latter — losing 73-55 to Tongue River on Saturday — Coach Jim Prather believes his team will turn the negative into a positive.
“We’ll take a game like that anytime,” Prather said. “The objective is to improve each week — and a game like that will be more valuable in the long run than playing a game where we don’t have to work very hard to win.”
The Buffs had one of those, too, last week, and in the big picture, it was that game, Friday night in Shoshoni, that mattered the most.
The Buffs did what they needed to do, winning 47-6 over a Wrangler team that entered the game without a win and with a roster of only six players.
“This was one of those games where we were going to win, regardless of how many minutes we played our starters,” said Prather. “So it was a good time to concentrate on the things within our power…like playing within the team scheme and with energy and enthusiasm, and taking care of fundamentals.”
Everyone on the roster saw quality minutes, as the Buffs did not press, played a stationary 2-3 zone and didn’t fast break on rebounds or steals.
“It was a complete 180 from our normal style of ball,” said Prather, likening the approach to “having a race car with a bad tank of gas that just chugged along and did enough to win.”
The Buffs led 7-0 after one, 19-0 at the half and 33-2 after three en route to the victory.
No one hit double figures. Hayden Goton led with eight, followed by Sean Sylvester and Neil Getzfreid with six apiece.
The Buffs went to Tongue River Saturday expecting a battle and they got one from the Eagles, who had lost to teams like Lovell and Wind River (whom the Buffs had beaten earlier in the season) but featured a style that the Buffs were not accustomed to seeing.
“Tongue River does a lot of things that are hard to defend,” Prather said. “They have good ballhandlers, and if you want to break a press like ours, that’s a great place to start. Plus they had one phenomenal shooter.”
That shooter was the unstoppable Patrick Wicks, who nailed seven three-pointers and eight of his nine free-throws en route to a game-high 35 points, 21 of which came after halftime when the Eagles overtook the Buffs.
The Buffs had things going their way late in the second quarter, but committed a foul at the buzzer. The Tongue River player stepped to the line and hit all three, trimming the Greybull lead to one and sending the Eagles into the locker room “on a high note,” and the Buffs “on a down note.”
As time wound down in the third, the Buffs had a layup waved off that would have cut the Tongue River lead to three. “We had a hard time regrouping after that,” said Prather, whose team was outscored 22-9 in the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t play as well as we could have, but credit Tongue River for making its shots.”
While the Buffs did have some success with their press, they were hurt by poor shooting.
“You can’t press very well if the other team doesn’t take the ball out of bounds,” said Prather, whose team shot 34 percent from the field, and was just 4-of-17 from three-point land. “We struggled the whole game, and that percentage is not near where we normally shoot.”
The Buffs put three in double figures, with Austin Frazier netting 13 followed by Sean Sylvester with 12 and Jordan Jolley with 10.

This week
The Buffs have set a goal of finishing unbeaten in conference play, and can take another step toward achieving it with a win over Riverside, a team which is down this year but will be coming off its first win of the season, which came at the expense of Shoshoni.
“We want to win the conference championship, and a win here would eliminate all doubt,” Prather said. “It’s a rivalry game,  and an opportunity to sweep Riverside, and I think it’s important that the kids play well coming off a loss.”
The Buffs and the Rebels will square off Thursday night at Buff Gym, with tipoff at 7 p.m.
Friday the Buffs will get their shot at top-ranked Wyoming Indian in Ethete.
Prather believes the Chiefs will play a style similar to the Eagles. The two teams played earlier this season, with Wyoming Indian winning handily.
“The Tongue River game was a great opportunity for us to practice and prepare for the same things we will see in Ethete,” Prather said. “The Chiefs have a great shooter and individual player in Slade Spoonhunter, who is very similar to Wicks, and they have great ballhandlers and seem to have a ton of kids who can shoot.
“Hopefully this game will make us better.”

Greybull    7 12 14 14 — 47
Shoshoni    0   0   2   4 — 6
GREYBULL — Dillon McCoy 1 0-0 2, Austin Frazier 2 0-0 5, Ryan Winkler 1 0-0 3, Jordan Jolley 1 1-1 3, Sean Sylvester 3 0-0 6, Braden Miller 2 0-0 5, Travis Sylvester 2 0-0 5, Seth Hoblit 2 0-3 4, Neil Getzfreid 3 0-1 6, Hayden Goton 4 0-0 8. Totals 21 1-5 47.
SHOSHONI — Watson 1 0-0 2, Linnan 1 0-0 2, Wright 1 0-0 2.  Totals 3 0-0 6.
3-POINT GOALS — Frazier, Winkler, Miller, Sylvester.  REBOUNDS — Greybull 33 (Sylvester and Hoblit, 6).  ASSISTS — Greybull 14 (T. Sylvester 4).  STEALS — Greybull 12 (T. Sylvester 4).  TURNOVERS — Greybull 17.

Greybull    15 17 14   9 — 55
Tongue R.    15 18 20 22 — 73
GREYBULL — Austin Frazier 4 4-5 13, Jordan Jolley 4 0-0 10, Sean Sylvester 3 6-9 12, Braden Miller 4 0-0 9, Travis Sylvester 1 0-0 2, Cody Duffy 1 0-0 2, Hayden Goton 2 3-4 7.  Totals 19-55 13-18 55.
TONGUE RIVER — Tippets 1 4-5 6, Korp 2 2-4  6, Yellowtail 4 2-5 10, Hovey 1 0-2 2, Moore 0 2-4 2, Falls Down 6 0-0 12, Wicks 10 8-9 35.  Totals 24 18-29 73.
3-POINT GOALS — Jolley 2, Frazier, Miller; Wicks 7.  REBOUNDS — Greybull 22 (Sylvester 9).  ASSISTS – Greybull 13 (Sylvester 5).  STEALS — Greybull 10 (Sylvester 4).  TURNOVERS – Greybull 20.