The first edition of the Bridger Valley rivalry took place last Friday night in Lyman. The fifth-ranked Eagles stormed past the Mountain View Buffalos, 53-27.

Mountain View got off to a 7-0 lead early, but Lyman rallied and tied the game by the end of the first quarter. A strong second period put the Eagles in front 22-12 by halftime. Mountain View couldn’t seem to find its offensive rhythm in the second half. Lyman pushed the lead to 32-18 after the third and added 21 more points in the fourth.

Juniors Braydon Bradshaw and McKoy Smith led the Eagles. Bradshaw had 13 points and ten rebounds. Smith added nine points. Lyman improved to 8-7 on the season and 3-0 in the 3A Southwest Quadrant.

WyoPreps talked with the junior duo about the win over their rival, how the season’s going, areas to improve, and fun items about high school basketball.

Lyman head coach Kevin Lueck feels his team is starting to figure it out.

“We played an absolutely grueling schedule early on, and not having an all-conference kid, like (Alex) Bradshaw kid, hurt us. I thought that defensively we weren’t playing great early, but we’re kind of settling in, and we’re recognizing that we have to win our battles.”

Mountain View had won three of its previous four before the loss at Lyman. Seniors Ashton Eldredge and Wyatt Rees talked to WyoPreps about their season-to-date, what they need to work on, and the fun stuff surrounding high school hoops.

Head coach Dustin Rees believes one area they must improve on is scoring against teams with size.

“We’ve got to be able to score (more) when we play teams that have big’s. Lyman’s got some big’s that are pretty good, and Kemmerer had some big’s that were pretty good, and we kind of struggled against those teams. They make it tough on us inside, and our guards didn’t shoot the ball great tonight (at Lyman).”

Rees feels his squad will be fine, they just need to keep improving.

Lyman plays Lander, while Mountain View takes on Big Piney and Lander this weekend.

High School Sports Pics of the Week Jan. 28-29

High School Sports Pics of the Week Jan. 28-29

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