Herders quickly improving

By SCOTT BORKGREN
Reporter/Photographer

Glenrock is quickly closing the gap on where they are and where they want to be.

The Herders split two games Jan. 29 and 30, but it was their loss that showed signs of significant growth.

Torrington 55 Glenrock 45

Against conference-leading Torrington (12-3 6-2) Jan. 29, the Herders might have won if games were 40 minutes long and not 32.

Glenrock was down 11 at halftime against the first-place Trailblazers and down 21 at one point during the third quarter. But the never quit attitude of the Herders kept chipping away at the lead. Although they didn’t win, they finished down only 10, much closer than many of Torrington’s opponents.

“Our game with Torrington on Friday, I felt was another step in the right direction,” coach Justin Kidneigh said.

Dustin Worthington and Kyle Farley led the team with 21 points and six rebounds and 12 points and six rebounds, respectively. But it was Farley’s defense that had the most impact on the game.

“We were really happy with Kyle Farley’s efforts on EJ Zimmerman defensively, as he held him to three points,” Kidneigh said.

Glenrock had eight steals and 12 turnovers compared to Torrington’s four steals and 16 turnovers. Glenrock also had four more assists in one of their most efficient games of the season.

Torrington won the game on shooting percentage and free throws. They out-shot the Herders 45 percent to 35 percent and made 13-of-16 free throws while Glenrock was 2-for-4 from the stripe.

“We struggled with shooting in the late second and early third quarters, but our defense held; especially in not giving up transition baskets,” Kidneigh said.

“With a little more consistency in shooting accuracy over the course of the game, the outcome may have been different,” he added.

Glenrock 48 Wright 44

This game was close, passionate, hard-fought and physical. Heck, it was almost violent.

There were several instances where players stared each other down as the referees came running over to make sure nobody got too feisty. The closest instance was in the final seconds.

With Glenrock leading 46-44 with 15 seconds left, Torrington had the ball for one final shot to force overtime. As they set up their play, Tyler Kelley stole the ball from Wright’s Seth Starr with seven seconds left and went running toward the other basket with everyone in hot pursuit.

Starr caught up to him near the three-point line and laid into him from the side with a massive shoulder bump that sent Kelley flying across the floor. The referees immediately called a flagrant foul.

Farley was only a step behind and didn’t like what he saw. A couple shoves later, the referees were separating the two and telling everyone to head to the half-court line so Kelley could shoot his free throws.

After a couple deep breaths, Kelley looked up at the basket with three seconds on the clock and a chance to ice the game.

He calmly made both shots.

“Tyler Kelley’s steal with six seconds was a huge defensive play, and then to take the hard foul like he did and still make both free throws to put us up four showed a lot of maturity,” Kidneigh said. “As I have said all season, this team plays hard and always wants to compete.”

Kelley finished the game with six points, two rebounds and one very important steal. Farley led the team in scoring with 14 points. He also had seven rebounds and three steals. Colter Macormic almost finished with a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds. Worthington made it a four-headed Herder attack with 11 points and six rebounds.

Though the team shot only 33 percent from the field, they held Wright to 29 percent shooting. Glenrock also did a much better job of getting to the foul line. The team was 19-for-30 from the stripe while Wright was 11-for-14.

“The game with Wright was closer than we would have liked,” Kidneigh said. “We felt that if we as a team executed well offensively with minimal turnovers and then did not give any easy scoring opportunities to Wright we should control the game.

“In the third quarter we were beating the pressure but not necessarily converting for points like we wanted. I felt defensively we played pretty well considering like with Torrington we were outsized as Wright has three 6’4” players starting.”

Coming up

Glenrock will travel to play Thermopolis Feb. 6. It will be the second time this season the Herders and Bobcats will square off. Thermopolis won the first meeting 49-41. In that game, Thermopolis had 23 more free-throw attempts than Glenrock.

Behind The Numbers

13.6

Points per game for team scoring leader- Dustin Worthington,

55.2

Points allowed per game

6

Number of opponents held below 50 points

0.5

How many more rebounds per game the Herders are getting over their opponents

Herder Basketball

Torrington 55, Glenrock 45

Player           Pts   3pt  Reb  Ast  Stl  Blk

Smith             2      0      1     2     2    0
Worthington   21   3       6     2     1    1
Kelley            2     0       5     1     3    0
Morgan          6    0       4      1     0    0
Farley            12   0      6      3     1    0
Macormic      2     0      2      2     1    0

Glenrock 48, Wright 44

Player           Pts   3pt  Reb  Ast  Stl  Blk

Smith             3      0     0     2     2     0
Worthington   11    0     6     1     1     0
Kelley             6     0     2     2     1     0
Morgan           1     0     2     0     0     0
Farley            14     0    7     1     3     1
Macormic      13     1    9     2     1     0
Johnston         0      0     0     1     0    0

This is part of the February 4, 2010 online edition of The Glenrock Independent.

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