Laramie High School Basketball Starts

Both the Laramie High School boys and girls basketball teams played their season opener Thursday in Cheyenne as part of the McDonald's Classic Basketball Tournament.

The Lady Plainsmen had a very strong start to their season with a 62-29 win over Lander Valley.  The first quarter saw Kyliegh Hiser explode with 12 points as Laramie took a 30-11 advantage and forced 12 turnovers from Lander.  Laramie contained the Lander offense to single digits in scoring through the last three quarters and 23% shooting for the game.  Every player on the Laramie roster recorded a rebound and only one player did not score. The Lady Plainsmen are 1-0 and ranked #4 in the wyopreps.com coaches and media preseason poll. They will play their first 4A team of the season Friday when they take on Rock Springs.

The Plainsmen began their season against with a 69-37 loss to the Rock Springs Tigers.  The Tigers took a 32-23 lead into halftime before dominating the second half to cruise to a 1-0 start to their season.  The wyopreps.com coaches and media preseason poll ranked Rock Springs at #3 in the state.  The Plainsmen committed 26 turnovers.  Laramie was led by senior Nick Mayes who had 14 points and 8 rebounds.

The Laramie Plainsmen also played a second game on Thursday against a team from Windsor, Colorado as part of the McDonald's Classic. Windsor won that contest 64-60 to drop Laramie's record to 0-2.  The Plainsmen had a good start to the game and were down only one point at the end of the first quarter 10-9.  However Windsor picked up their game and outscored Laramie 17-10 to take a 27-19 into halftime.  The second half featured a lot of offense from both teams.  Windsor continued to pull away and took a 49-39 lead after the third quarter and would see a 13 point lead a couple of times in the fourth before Laramie went on a 10-3 run.  The Plainsmen pulled within one point several times toward the end of the game, but Windsor hung on for the victory despite being outscored 21-15 in the final quarter.  Windsor forced 22 turnovers from Laramie and shot 44% from the field while committing 15 turnovers.  Laramie grabbed 34 rebounds to Windsors 31 and was led by Nick Mayes with 20 points and 10 boards.  The Plainsman will continue play Friday when they take on Star Valley.