After a shaky start over the weekend at the Wrangler Invite in Shoshoni, the Kemmerer High School boys’ basketball team got things rolling, finishing strong with a 2-1 record for the tournament.

The Rangers opened play Friday against a physical Burlington squad, losing to the No. 5-ranked team in 1A, 57-54. Kemmerer rebounded later that day with a 60-53 win over host Shoshoni, then closed out the tournament Saturday with a 60-27 rout of Rocky Mountain.

“It wasn’t too bad of a weekend,” said KHS head coach Matt Stewart. “We struggled a little bit in our first game against Burlington — but against Shoshoni and Rocky Mountain, I thought things started to come together for us.”

The Rangers won’t have long to ruminate on the weekend, as they host 3A Pinedale Tuesday, the final game before the holiday break.

“We play Pinedale on Tuesday at home, and that’s going to be a tough game for us,” Stewart said. “Pinedale’s a good team — that group has been playing together for a while, and they’ve won some pretty big games this year, played a lot of good 4A schools. It’s going to be a test for us.”

With just a day of practice to prepare for the Wranglers, Stewart said defense and rebounding will be a priority, as well as scoring underneath.

“We’re gonna focus on the defensive end of the floor, and rebounding — rebounding has been a bit of a struggle for us,” Stewart said. “We’ll continue to work on that. And a big thing for us is finishing around the rim — we missed a bunch of shots around the rim that we shouldn’t miss, so that’s going to be our focus this week.”

Burlington 57, Rangers 54

The Rangers opened the Wrangler Invite Friday against 1A Burlington, a team that’s been turning heads in the first couple of weeks of the season. Kemmerer struggled with the Huskies’ physical style of play on both ends of the floor in the 57-54 loss.

“Against Burlington, we didn’t shoot the ball very well, or defend very well — they were a little more physical than we had prepared for,” Stewart said. “We struggled with that physicality, a little bit.”

Trailing heading into the final frame, the Rangers pulled within a point, then had a shot at the end of the game that would have tied the score to send the contest into overtime.

“We battled back — we were down eight or nine going into the fourth quarter, and got within a point,” Stewart said. “We had a shot to tie it at the end of the game, just couldn’t get it to fall. Overall, though, for being our first game of the tournament, it was pretty good for us.”

Chase Bowen led the Rangers with a double-double, netting 16 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Skyler Rogers followed with a double-double of his own, scoring 14 points and pulling down 13 rebounds, while Ethyn Perkins added 13 points.

Rangers 60, Shoshoni 53

Putting the loss to Burlington in the rear view, the Rangers rebounded nicely against Shoshoni later that same day, overcoming some of the same offensive struggles found in the game against the Huskies to beat the host team, 60-53.

“The Shoshoni game was an interesting game for us,” Stewart said. “We struggled shooting for the second game in a row — we’re struggling finishing on the inside, and we didn’t shoot well from three.”

Skyler Rogers paced the Rangers with 22 points, to go along with seven rebounds. Ethyn Perkins followed with 17 points and a team-high six steals, while Kaden Witbeck added nine points. Chase Bowen and Gabe Wiswell chipped in six points and five points, respectively, while Bennett Pollard added a free throw to round out the scoring.

“Shoshoni came out playing on their home court — they were pretty fired up,” Stewart said. “We got into foul trouble early, and had to sit a few starters. But we battled back — Skyler Rogers had a huge game for us, hit some really big free throws the last couple of minutes.”

Rangers 60, Rocky Mountain 27

The Rangers closed out the Wrangler Invite with a dominating performance over Rocky Mountain, riding the hot hand of Chase Bowen to a 60-27 win.

“We made a change offensively against Rocky Mountain — we moved Chase Bowen into the post, instead of at guard,” Stewart said. “He struggled the first two games offensively, so we thought we could get him inside and get him going. It seemed to help us out quite a bit, help set the tone of the game.”

Bowen led the charge for the Rangers with 22 points, to go along with seven rebounds. Ethyn Perkins also scored in double digits, netting 10 points, while dishing off a team-high five assists. Skyler Rogers finished with nine points and six rebounds, while Kaden Witbeck and Gabe Wiswell chipped in six points apiece.

“I think at the end of the first quarter, we were up 20-0,” Stewart said. “But basketball is a game of runs — Rocky went on a pretty good run in the second quarter, outscored us 17-5. We were only up by eight at halftime. But I told the guys at the half that we did a good job of setting the tone in the first quarter, and we needed to get back to it. They took to it, and we had one of our best halves of the season in that second half. That win was a good way for us to close out the tournament.”

Cage Bowen and Kane Jimenez rounded out the scoring with four points and three points, respectively.

“Ethyn Perkins had a really good weekend for us — he struggled offensively the first game, but he came back and filled a void when Chase wasn’t scoring. Off the bench, Kane Jimenez gave us some really good minutes, and so did Cage Bowen, especially in that Rocky game.”

“This weekend was about finding out where we’re at, in that aspect,” Stewart added about his bench players. “Getting some of those younger kids in was good for us.”