Lady Rebels cap opening weekend with rout of A-C

The Riverside Lady Rebels won one and lost two at the Bobcat Invitational, falling to pair of ranked teams in Upton and Sundance before putting one on the positive side of the ledger with a rout of Arvada-Clearmont.
Coach Jason Mitchell views the weekend performance as a stepping stone toward better things.  The Rebels have only three players who saw extensive playing time last season: Brooklyn Paxton, Johnna Clifford and Vinaya Vanderploeg.
So for everyone, it was a learning experience.
“I thought we did some really good things in the opener against Upton,” Mitchell said of the 46-30 setback. “We knew going in that they were not only talented, but also a group who played a good amount of basketball in the offseason. That showed itself early and often.
“They were simply a better basketball team than we were at this point in the season.”
Clifford led the way with 13 followed by Paxton with 10.  Varisa Olsen was the top rebounder, with eight.
The offense continued to sputter in Riverside’s loss to Sundance, a top-five 2A team, mustering only 26 points.  The Lady Rebels failed to top double digits in any quarter and had just one player, Paxton, in double digits with 10.  She also had 11 rebounds and five steals.
“We played well enough defensively for most of the game, but even if we had shot extremely well, we would’ve struggled due to the number of extra possessions we gave them via turnovers.”  Riverside had 32 of them against Sundance and 34 versus Upton, for a total of 66.
The Rebels ended the week on a positive note, thrashing Arvada-Clearmont 48-20.  Paxton led with 13, followed by VanderPloeg with 10 and Kennedy Bassett with nine.
“We had such an advantage in athleticism that it was hard to learn much from this game,” said Mitchell. “We shot the ball well from the perimeter and caused them problems offensively with our length.”

This week
It won’t get any easier this weekend for Lady Rebels, not with games against No. 1 Cokeville and No. 5 Little Snake River on tap at the Wrangler Tournament in Shoshoni.
“At this point in the season, we’re still focused on creating a foundation on which we can build,” said Mitchell. “We’re still a very long way from becoming who we will be in February. We’ll head into the weekend hoping to see growth from where we were last weekend. Whatever results may come are secondary to continuing to move in the right direction.”

Upton    17 8 14 7 — 46
Riverside      7 6 11 6 — 30
RIVERSIDE — Kennedy Bassett 0-2 0-0 0, Anna Stone 0-0 2-2 2, Brooklyn Paxton 5-8 0-2 10, Johnna Clifford 5-13 2-4 13, Daya Olson 0-2, Vinaya VanderPloeg 0-5 0-0 0, Teagan Kozisek 0-2 1-2 1, Varissa Olsen 1-3 2-8 4.  Totals 11-of-35 (FGs) 7-of-18 (FTs) 30.
3-POINT GOALS — Clifford.  REBOUNDS — Riverside 32 (V. Olsen 8).  STEALS — Riverside 12 (Paxton 4).  ASSISTS — Riverside 6 (VanderPloeg 3).  TURNOVERS — Riverside 34.
Sundance    6 9 12 12 — 39
Riverside    5 7   6   8 — 26
RIVERSIDE — Bassett 1-3 0-2 2, Stone 0-1 0-0 0, Paxton 3-9  4-6 10, Clifford 2-12 1-5 6, VanderPloeg 3-6 1-2 8, V Olsen 0-1 0-0 0, Ada Pratt 0-2 0-0 0.  Totals 9-of-34 6-of-15 26.
3-POINT GOALS — Clifford, VanderPloeg.  REBOUNDS — Riverside 32 (Paxton 11).  STEALS — Riverside 13 (Paxton 5).  ASSISTS — Riverside 6 (Clifford 4).  TURNOVERS — Riverside 32.
A-C           3 6   4 7 — 20
Riverside    12 9 18 9 — 48
RIVERSIDE — Bassett 2-4 3-4 9, Stone 2-3 0-0 5, Paxton 5-15 3-4 13, Clifford 4-13 1-3 9, D Olson 0-3 0-0 0, VanderPloeg 5-10 0-0 10, Kozisek 1-2 0-0 2, V Olsen 0-7 0-0 0, Pratt 0-5 0-0 0.  Totals 19-of 62 7-of-11 48.
3-POINT GOALS — Bassett 2, Stone.  REBOUNDS — Riverside 31 (Paxton 11).  STEALS — Riverside 31 (VanderPloeg 9).   ASSISTS — Riverside 9 (VanderPloeg 4).  TURNOVERS — Riverside 18.