The Kemmerer High School girls’ basketball team got the 2024-25 season off to a solid start at this weekend’s Herder Classic in Glenrock, but struggled a bit down the stretch at the Coal Miner’s Classic in Wright, posting a 1-2 record for the weekend.

The Lady Rangers opened play Friday with a 43-17 rout of Kaycee, but lost 48-40 to host Glenrock later that same day. Kemmerer closed out the weekend Saturday at Wright, losing to their hosts 47-36, then coming up short against Sundance, 59-22.

“I’d say we had a pretty solid first day, and then a lot of learning opportunities on the second,” said KHS head coach Phil Thatcher. “I think last weekend was about getting that first tournament out of the way, getting those butterflies, that anxiousness out of your system. Four of my girls that played a lot hadn’t played a lot of varsity basketball — if any at all. Getting all of that out of the way was good.”

The Lady Rangers are on the road again this weekend at the Flaming Gorge Classic in Green River, with games scheduled against Glenrock, St. Stephens and Thermopolis.

“The girls are really excited — they’re going to be sleeping in their own beds every night, sleeping in past 6 a.m. every morning,” Thatcher said, chuckling. “And — just like last weekend — it will be good competition. It’s funny — I don’t think the Kemmerer girls have ever played Glenrock in our history, and now we’ll play them twice in six days. That’s our first game at Flaming Gorge. They’re a good team, they have some size, they have good guards, they’re physical. They’re gonna make us better, and hopefully, we can compete with them. We’re looking forward to that.”

As for St. Stephens and Thermopolis, Thatcher said both teams will provide a good test.

“We’ll see St. Stephens the second day — I’m not sure how they’ll be this year, they dropped down to 1A,” Thatcher said. “Last year they struggled a bit, but they look like they’re putting up some points this season, so we’ll see what they do — hopefully we can come out and play well. Our last game is against Thermopolis, and that’s an important look for us, because they’re part of that 2A Northwest. Outside of Wyoming Indian, they’re probably one of the frontrunners for our region, so we’ll be able to test ourselves, and see how we stack up and see if we can play with the best in our region, right off the bat. So it’s another good weekend for us. Hopefully, we have a little more legs for our later games, and we can get a good look, and really analyze ourselves and our performance.”

Lady Rangers 43, Kaycee 17

The Lady Rangers opened the 2024-25 campaign with a dominating 43-17 win over 1A Kaycee, setting the tone for what should be a successful season.

“What I really liked against Kaycee was our defense was pretty solid,” Thatcher said. “We held them to 12 points through three quarters. Offensively, we were pretty aggressive — I still think we can get our shooting a little more accurate, but the girls worked hard. It was a good game. Kaycee came out and played pretty hard — they didn’t have a lot of size to them, and not a lot of depth. We had a good first game, get a good feeling getting a win like that, I think it was an important, positive step for us.”

Janae Skidmore had the hot hand for the Lady Rangers with 22 points, followed by Cambree Tolhurst with eight points. Ella Thatcher finished with seven points, while Natasha Martinez, McKenna Whitbeck and Nataly Ruvalcaba chipped in two points apiece.

Glenrock 48, Lady Rangers 40

Squaring off against the host team in the second round of the Herder’s Classic, the Lady Rangers played hard, but came up just short against the 3A lady Herders, 48-40.

“I thought we played hard against Glenrock — offensively, we need to get a little more in sync with each other,” Thatcher said. “That’s to be expected. We haven’t changed the offense a whole lot — we added a