The Lady Braves played their first home game of the season in their last non-conference outing of the schedule on Friday night as they played host to Mountain Crest High School out of Hyrum, Utah. The Star Valley girls wound up on the short end of a 45-36 final to the visiting squad to move their record to (4-4) overall before starting 4A West Conference play next weekend on the home court.

It was a hard fought contest where the two teams were within a single possession until the fourth quarter when Mountain Crest was able to build a double-digit lead. Despite the loss, the Lady Braves’ defense held their opponent to a season-low in point output, more than 13 under their season average. Cam Mackey returned to the lineup and led the team with ten points. Ambrey Nelson scored eight points and pulled down eight rebounds as well. Livy Kleeman chipped in with six points.

“Overall I’m happy where we’re at,” stated head coach Kade Erickson. “We were gritty and defensively we made some errors but they are a pretty high-powered offensive team and we held them below their average. We have to eliminate our turnovers and we’re going to have some but there were at least ten that were just panic turnovers. We didn’t take care of the ball on some of those possessions. We need to get better on our zone as well.”

Natrona County and Kelly Walsh come to Star Valley High School on January 16-17 respectively with the start of conference play. The Lady Braves and the Fillies tip off at 6 p.m. on Friday night with their game against the Trojans scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. Despite being perennial contenders, the non-conference records for both schools coming into the weekend were eye-opening with the Trojans standing at (1-7) and the Fillies at (1-8).

“Kelly Walsh lost some good players and Natrona also lost three or four solid starters,” Erickson added. “We’ll look at film and you can look at their record but just like everyone else teams are figuring out their rotations. We’ll step it up and be ready for them no matter what. Everyone is 0-0.”

• 4A Roundup

(Rankings are courtesy of the latest Wyopreps.com Coaches and Media Girls Basketball Poll)

Tuesday
#3 Green River 73  Evanston 49

Thursday
Riverton @ #3 Green River
Evanston @ Rock Springs

Friday
Kelly Walsh @ Jackson
#1 Sheridan @ #2 Cheyenne East
Natrona County @ #4 Star Valley 
#5 Thunder Basin @ #5 Laramie
Campbell County @ Cheyenne Central

4A Conference Standings

4A Southwest
Star Valley (4-4)
Evanston (5-5)
Riverton (3-8)
Jackson (1-6)

4A Northwest
Green River (8-2)
Rock Springs (4-7)
Kelly Walsh (1-7)
Natrona County (1-8)

4A East
Cheyenne East (8-2)
Thunder Basin (6-3)
Sheridan (5-3)
Laramie (6-4)
Cheyenne Central (4-6)
Cheyenne South (1-9)
Campbell County (0-7)