The Kemmerer High School girls’ hoops team hosted the Fossil County Classic over the weekend, posting a 2-2 record against some of the toughest competition in the region.

The Lady Rangers opened the tournament Thursday night against a talented Rich squad, falling to the Lady Rebels in a tight battle, 34-31. Kemmerer evened its record for the tournament Friday night in a rematch with Shoshoni, winning a defensive battle 26-8, and earning a measure of redemption for an overtime loss to the Lady Wranglers earlier in the season.

The Lady Rangers (5-6) squared off against 1A powerhouse Cokeville Saturday morning, losing to the top-ranked Lady Panthers 48-36. Kemmerer closed out the tournament Saturday afternoon on a winning note, beating Farson-Eden for the second time this season, 37-29.

“I thought it was a good weekend for us,” said KHS head coach Phil Thatcher. “We beat the teams we should have, and we had some pretty tight games with Rich and Cokeville. There’s still some things we want to improve on, especially offensively — our shot selection’s pretty good, but our balance, going to the hoop, things like that need to improve. But overall, I thought it was a great tournament, especially coming out of the break. I thought we played at a pretty high level.”

The Lady Rangers host Saratoga Thursday night, then travel to Big Piney Saturday for the start of 2A West Conference play.

“Saratoga is 2-4, but they’re playing everybody tight,” Thatcher said. “We’ll be playing a team that wants to get some wins, and I think they’re good enough to do it, if we don’t play our best game. Saturday is our conference opener up in Big Piney, and they’re a scary team — they press the entire game, and just want to play fast. We definitely have our work cut out for us again this week.”

Rich 34, Lady Rangers 31

The Lady Ranger opened the tournament against their rivals from Rich County, Utah, and it was a hard-fought game from the jump.

The Lady Rebels held a 22-14 lead at the break over their hosts, and were able to hold off a third-quarter rally by the Lady Rangers to win 34-31.

“We turned the ball over too much against Rich,” Thatcher said. “We had 21 turnovers. Rich is a good team — they have good ball control, and they take a lot of good shots. That’s one thing we didn’t do — take a lot of shots. We did get a decent amount of free throws — we were 16-of-22 from the line — and that kept us in the game. But we only had five 3-point attempts. We made three of them, so that helped. But we have to get more shots from around the key.”

Tyler Thatcher led the charge for the Lady Rangers with 14 points, followed by seven points each from Janae Skidmore and Natasha Martinez. Ella Thatcher chipped in two points — to go along with five rebounds and three steals — while Sophie Archibald rounded out the scoring with one point.

Lady Rangers 26, Shoshoni 8