Laramie Girls Basketball is in Quarantine, Plainsmen Will Play

The Laramie High School girls’ basketball team will not start conference quadrant action over the next two weeks.

The team is in COVID quarantine and will not play at No. 3 Cheyenne East tomorrow. Also postponed are games versus No. 5 Cheyenne Central on Friday and at Cheyenne South on Friday, Jan. 29.

Information on rescheduling the games has not been released.

Meanwhile, the Laramie Plainsmen do start conference quadrant play on Wednesday. They take on No. 3 Cheyenne East at Story Gym. The game time has been moved to 6 p.m.

Laramie enters with a 7-1 record after non-conference play, while the Thunderbirds are off to an 8-0 start.

Plainsmen head coach Jim Shaffer knows they’ll see some similar play as the last four games they’ve played.

“It’s another team that’s going to press and speed the game up. When we were playing well earlier (this season), we were much better in terms of executing half-court offense and making teams have to guard us. Teams have sped us up with the press the last couple of games, and we haven’t been very good about being able to execute our half-court offense. We’ve been in a hurry and just struggled in terms of what we’re trying to do on the offensive end.”

Laramie’s defense will be tested, as Cheyenne East is the No. 1 scoring team in 4A boys’ basketball at 71.1 points per game. The Plainsmen counter with a defense that allows only 44.2 points per game.

The Thunderbirds are led by senior Graedyn Buell. He is averaging 24.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Senior Jake Rayl adds 13.9 points and 4.4 assists per game.

LHS is led by sophomores Jaedyn Brown and Mahlon Morris. Brown paces Laramie at 15.4 points and 4.1 assists per game. Morris adds 12.4 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds per game.

KOWB (AM 1290) will have live coverage starting at 5:30 p.m. David Settle will call the action on the radio, the KOWB app, and online.