Laramie Basketball Welcomes NC To Town

After a rough road trip to begin quadrant crossover play, the Laramie High School basketball teams return home Friday and Saturday for doubleheaders.

Laramie will play Natrona County Friday. The boys’ varsity game is at 5:30 p.m. followed by the girls’ varsity game at 7 p.m. They turn around and face Sheridan Saturday with the boy’s starting at 11:30 a.m. and the girls at 1 p.m.

Both LHS teams went 0-2 at Gillette last weekend, as they were swept by the Camels and Bolts.

Laramie Plainsmen

The Plainsmen return home looking to stop a two-game skid. They come into the weekend at 7-8 on the season.

Laramie head coach Travis Brown said coming off last weekend the focus has been on determining the pace of play.

“Learning how to control tempo and change the tempo a little bit when things aren’t quite going the way we envisioned. We played good last week for two quarters, in both halves, and I felt like if we could give the kids a couple of more weapons, maybe in the second half they would’ve been able to be a little more successful.”

Brown did admit it’s odd that they will be seeing teams for the first time this late into a season. First up is the Natrona County Mustangs Friday night at 5:30.

Brown said, “Natrona is big. A bunch of football players that aren’t too bad at basketball. They press a lot. They love that 1-2-2 press, so we’re going to have to be able to handle the press. They were right there with Central. Three minutes left in that game, it was a one-point game, so they can play with anybody. They beat Thunder Basin this year, so they’re not a bad team by any means.”

This will be the first meeting between the Plainsmen and Mustangs since a victory by Laramie in overtime at Natrona last season, 80-77.

Laramie Lady Plainsmen

The Laramie girls have been struggling as of late. They are on a nine-game losing streak and sit at 3-12 on the season.

Head coach Rod Tyson said to see these teams now for the first time is definitely different.

“It’s good to have different competition, just like it was good to see where we were at against the Gillette schools last week with our guard play. These teams run a bunch of zones, so it’ll be good to see how we attack zones this time, so there are new challenges every time.”

Coming off a pair of blowout losses, Tyson continues to focus on improving for later in the season.

“Lot of ball-handling, a lot of being patient with the ball. Same stuff, not just necessarily for these two (opponents), but for all the games that we play. We did work a lot against the zone.”

The Lady Plainsmen welcome the Natrona Fillies to Laramie. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.

Friday is the first meeting since LHS slipped past NC in Casper last season 46-44.

Broadcast Coverage

KOWB (AM 1290) will air both games of Friday’s doubleheader versus Natrona County. Coverage starts at 5 p.m. with David Settle calling the action. You can also listen online, through the KOWB App or on an Amazon Alexa-enabled device.