The Kemmerer High School girls’ hoops team saw their season come to an end two weekends ago at the 2A West Regional Tournament in Riverton, as the Lady Rangers played hard but came up short against Rocky Mountain and Greybull.

Kemmerer opened the tournament with a 31-22 loss to the Lady Grizzlies, then were eliminated from state contention the following day, after a 42-33 loss to the Lady Buffalos.

“We did not handle the press well — both Rocky Mountain and Greybull pressed us, and it caused us a problem,” said KHS head coach Phil Thatcher. “We’ve handled presses before — in fact, all year we’ve been pretty good against presses. But we struggled with it that weekend. Rocky was pretty disciplined with theirs — they didn’t get super-aggressive and get out of position, they had a little bit of length to them, so it was harder for us to get clear passing lanes. Greybull was way aggressive — they came out and tried to smother you and that caused our players to panic a little bit. But we ended the Rocky game with 34 turnovers — you just can’t have that many and expect to win.”

It was a bittersweet ending for the Lady Rangers’ senior trio of Janae Skidmore, Ella Thatcher and Natasha Martinez, who’d hoped to cap off their stellar careers on the hardwood with one more run at a state title. Coach Thatcher said the three have been an integral part of the team’s success for three years, and have provided outstanding leadership to the younger players.

“The last couple of years, they’ve been those players that we’ve leaned on,” coach Thatcher said. “They’ve had a competitive spirit about them — their expectation was going to be to play their best, and they wanted to win. And so to have that attitude, I hope those younger girls picked up on that a little bit, because their work ethic was great. They gave full effort, every practice, every game.They played the game the way it should have been played. And I appreciate them — their impact is going to be a good impact for the next several years for girls that have sat and watched them play.”

The three seniors were recognized with postseason honors over the weekend, with Skidmore and Thatcher named to the 2A West All-Conference and All-Region team; Martinez was named All-Conference Honorable Mention.

Skidmore was also named to the 2A All-State team.

With the 2024-25 season now in the books, Thatcher said he was pleased with the growth of the program throughout the season.

“I thought that we grew through the year,” he said. “I was really happy with how our younger girls — especially Hadlee Wood and Cambree Tolhurst — but those three seniors, it was hard at the start for them to get in the flow of things and find their place, but they did a great job. And Nataly Ruvalcaba and McKenna Whitbeck were the subs coming in. But later on in the year, I saw a couple of other girls come in, as well. I had five ballplayers, and the rest were just getting their feet wet in high school basketball.”

By the end of the year, the team was beginning to figure things out, with the younger players making their presence felt.

“By the end of the year, I could rotate seven or eight girls and have them come in and not be a big drop-off,” Thatcher said. “They came in and did a nice job. I think if we’d have had another couple of weeks, maybe we could have caught some of those teams, but we just couldn’t put it together at the end.”

Thatcher went on to say that next year’s team will have to establish its own identity, though he expects the girls to continue what’s become a legacy of fundamentally sound defense.

“Every coach that I talk to at regionals — and even some of the ones at state that I saw this last weekend — they’re like, man, your defense is something else,” he said. “These girls, the last couple years, have established themselves as a team, that, when you play them, you’re going to know you’re in a ballgame. There’s a way we play defense, and how we hustle, and so they’ve established that. The challenge is now for these younger girls to carry that on. Maybe we can even do some things on offense to make it better.”

Rocky Mountain 31, Lady Rangers 22

The Lady Rangers matched up against Rocky Mountain in the opening round of the 2A West Regional Tournament in Riverton, falling to the Lady Grizz 31-22.

Kemmerer finished the game with 34 turnovers, which proved to be the difference in the contest.

“We rebounded really well — we knew that Rocky really relied on offensive boards, and we did a great job cleaning those up,” Thatcher said. “But too many turnovers, and when they get them up top, there’s not a whole lot you can do. They beat us 31-22, and to give up 31 points with 34 turnovers is a pretty good effort on defense.”

Janae Skidmore paced the Lady Rangers with nine points, six rebounds and four steals, while Cambree Tolhurst finished with seven points. Ella Thatcher chipped in three points and a team-high 12 rebounds; Natasha Martinez and Hadlee Wood rounded out the scoring, with two points and one point, respectively.

Greybull 42, Lady Rangers 33

Facing elimination in the second round of the 2A West Tourney, the Lady Rangers still struggled with taking care of the ball, allowing 25 turnovers in a 42-33 loss to Greybull.

Free throws were also an issue, as the Lady Rangers were sent to the charity stripe just eight times, sinking two of them.

“We only shot eight free throws, which is not our game,” Thatcher said. “We talk about it before every game — we like to shoot over 14 or 15 free throws a game, but it didn’t happen for us. We only hit two, so we didn’t shoot really well against Greybull.”

In the final game of her high school career, Janae Skidmore tallied 17 points, to go along with five rebounds and three steals. Natasha Martinez capped of her career with eight points and four steals, while Cambree Tolhurst finished with six points. Hadlee Wood rounded out the scoring with two points.