Rebels drop two-point decision to St. Stephens

The Riverside Rebels shook off a sluggish start, rallying in the second half to take the lead before eventually dropping a two-point decision to St. Stephens.  Ryder Kozisek and Hayden Paxton combined for 49 points in the 70-68 defeat.
It was a tale of two halves. St. Stephens started fast, building leads of 26-11 after one and 43-25 at the half.
“St. Stephens has some really good shooters and we gave them too much space early on,” said Coach Scott Winters.
He attributed the slow start, at least in part, to inconsistent practices over the holidays.
“We had several players gone throughout the break and it showed in our conditioning,” said Winters. “You could tell who had been at practices and who hadn’t. They came back to school on Thursday and we played St. Stephen’s on Friday, so it was a quick turnaround.”
While troubled by his team’s lackluster start, Winters liked the way it responded.
“We’ve been talking about having a positive attitude and being happy for our teammates with their success and we were able to stay upbeat throughout the adversity we faced early on,” he said. “At halftime the game could have gone two different ways. We could have given up and gotten beat by a long way or we could be mentally strong and get back on track.
“The boys responded well and we had a good team effort in the second half and we were able to come back and take the lead. Hyson Hill and Josh Wildman did a great job of shutting down their top guys and we were able to get the stops we needed.”
“It was back and forth in the final few minutes of the game and it didn’t go our way in the end, but they showed a lot of poise and heart and kept positive which was our goal so I was extremely proud of them.”
Kozisek paced the Rebels with 29, shooting a blistering 57% from the field, and led the team in steals with four. Paxton also shot well, chipping in 20, and Avery Clifford was a force on the boards with 17 rebounds.

JV action
Riverside’s JV dropped a three-point decision to Fort Washakie on Saturday.
Wyatt Daly-Patterson led the Rebels with 18 points and was a leader on both ends of the floor, according to Winters. Paul Stone and Gavyn Cervantes also had strong performances.
“Fort Washakie had some athletic boys on their team but we did a good job of containing them and forcing them to take contested shots,” said Winters. “The boys competed hard and gave us a chance to win in the end. It was a good game for the boys to improve and see what we need to work on this week.”

Classic
The Rebels will be among the 12 teams competing in this weekend’s Big Horn Basin Classic. They’re entered in Pool B and will play Lovell at noon and Wyoming Indian at 3 p.m. Friday before matching up against one of the Pool A teams (Worland, Rocky Mountain or St. Stephens) Saturday.  All three games will be at Worland High School.
Of the week ahead, Winters said, “We are going to have to have strong practices and get better at our team defense and making better decisions with the ball on offense. Our turnovers are still way too high and we want to do a better job of valuing our possessions by not being careless with the ball.”

St. Stephens    26 17 20 7  — 70
Riverside    11 14 25 18 — 68
RIVERSIDE — Josh Wildman 5-12 1-4 11, Hyson Hill 0-3 0-0 0, Hayden Paxton 8-14 2-8 20, Gavyn Cervantes 0-4 0-0 0, Avery Clifford 3-7 1-3 8, Ryder Kozisek 11-19 0-0 29.  Totals 27-of-58 4-of-15 68.
3-POINT GOALS — Kozisek 7, Paxton 2, Clifford.  REBOUNDS — Riverside 46 (Clifford 17).  STEALS — Riverside 9 (Kozisek 4).  ASSISTS — Riverside 13 (Wildman 4).  TURNOVERS — Riverside 23.