The Kemmerer girls’ basketball team got off to a solid start at this weekend’s Wrangler Invite in Shoshoni, but struggled a bit down the stretch, posting a 1-2 record for the tournament.

The Lady Rangers opened play Friday with a hard-fought 43-41 win over Burlington, but lost a 16-14 nailbiter to Shoshoni in overtime Friday afternoon. Kemmerer closed out the tournament Saturday against a tough Rocky Mountain squad, coming up just short in a fourth-quarter comeback, 32-27.

“It was an OK weekend,” said KHS head coach Phil Thatcher. “We started a little slow against Burlington, but we got going and got that game right off the bat. Shoshoni, we played pretty poorly, and I felt that I coached poorly — didn’t get the girls in the right positions, especially on offense. We just didn’t do well — top to bottom — and that starts with me. We did OK coming back against Rocky Mountain — they’re a solid club. Again, we started slow, so I need to go back and figure out how we can start a little bit quicker. But we hung in there.”

The Lady Rangers will host 3A Pinedale (5-1) Tuesday for their home opener, and Thatcher said his team has its work cut out for them.

“Pinedale has one of the best players in the state in Elyn Bowers, bar none,” Thatcher said. “She’s a monster — my juniors and seniors have been playing her since sixth grade, and she’s been good that whole time. We’re hoping to have Tyler [Thatcher] back, so she and Natasha [Martinez] can split that duty, because that will be a heck of a job, trying to keep her under 20 points. Plus, they have another guard that, when you get too focused on Elyn, the other one goes off. We have our work cut out for us.”

Thatcher added that consistency is now the focus heading into the holiday break, as well as after.

“We’ve had some ups and downs so far this season,” he explained. “We played pretty solid against Mountain View — even though we lost that game — then played solid against Rich before a hiccup against Farson. Then we beat Burlington — and have a solid game against Rocky — then have a hiccup against Shoshoni. We’ve got to find our consistency, and some of that is rotation of players. We’re still trying to figure out what we are, and what’s our best team.”

Lady Rangers 43, Burlington 41

The Lady Rangers opened play Friday at the Wrangler Invite against a scrappy Burlington team, and after trailing 14-7 in the first quarter, were able to pull within a 3-pointer at the break, 23-20.

Kemmerer found a groove in the second half, outscoring the Lady Huskies 23-18 to hold on for the 43-41 win.

“There was a lot of hustle in that game,” Thatcher said. “Turnovers weren’t too bad for us, and we did a good job of keeping them off the boards. Shooting-wise, we were all right — we hit 13 of our free throws, so that was good. I’d like a few more, but we’ll get there. That kind of kept us in the game. We did have a lot of foul trouble over the weekend — I had to sit several of our starters, so one good thing that happened is a lot of our younger players got some significant minutes. They made some mistakes, but they also learned, so that’s a good thing. That helped us build some depth, and help these girls not be so nervous coming off the bench.”