Grizzlies Struggle To String Together Wins

There is an old saying that goes “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”  This personifies the Grizzlies season this year.  Sitting with a current record of 5-11 only one of those eleven losses would be considered a blowout with several others ending in just a one or two possession game.  Of their five wins only once did those wins come in back to back games and even then they came with the holiday break between them.  It goes without saying that it has been a bit of a frustrating season for the Grizzlies and things did not improve during last week’s games.

The Grizzlies started their week on the road at West Side on Wednesday.  The Grizzlies got off to a great start in this game.  The Grizzlies got nine first quarter points from three point shots made by Mecham, B. Smith and C. Smith.  Those shots helped lift the Grizzlies to a six point first quarter lead.  Even though they followed a fourteen point first quarter performance with a respectable twelve point second quarter performance the Grizzlies could not hold down the hard charging Pirates who cut the Grace lead to a single point at the halftime break.  In the second half of play the Grizzlies ran out of gas as they failed to keep pace with the Pirates.  West Side wound up outscoring the Grizzlies by a dozen points in the final two periods as they coasted to an eleven point victory.  After such a hot start to the game the loss was just another frustrating finish for the Grizzlies and their fans.

Following the tough loss in Dayton the Grizzlies hit the road once again to face a different Pirate team.  In this game Grace took on their district rivals the Butte County Pirates.  On paper it really looked as though the Grizzlies should be the favorites to win this match up but as everyone knows rivalry games are nothing if not competitive.  To put it bluntly the Grizzlies really struggled in this game to break the press and inside the key.  The Grizzlies leading scorer Parker Yost who can usually account for double digit scoring in each half was limited to just three first half points with fellow big man Chase Smith finishing the game with just two total points.  Meanwhile the Pirates who always seem to be very comfortable shooting on their home floor got off to a blistering start putting up twenty-three first quarter points.  After getting down big in the first the Grizzlies made some headway in the second quarter holding the Pirates to just nine points and cutting the deficit to just seven points at the half.  Following the break the Pirates once again created some separation and once again built the lead to double digits.  This was an ongoing theme for this game.  Everytime the Grizzlies would start to get back into the game the Pirates would make a run of their own, preventing the Grizzlies from ever gaining control.  In the end the Grizzlies did manage to close the gap but still lost the game by seven points.  Despite the scoring troubles from the Grace bigs a couple of bright spots came from the shooting of sophomore Carter Mecham who hit a pair of three’s and was perfect from the foul line and senior Bodee Smith who poured in six three-point shots on his way to a game high twenty-four points.  

The Grizzlies have just four games remaining on their regular season schedule.  This week they will host county rival Soda Springs on Tuesday before traveling to Cokeville Wyoming on Saturday.

Grizzlies 14 12 11 8 45

Pirates 8 17 19 12 56

K. Kimball 5, K. Edwards 7, G. Draper 6, C. Mecham 8, B. Smith 8, C. Smith 6, P. Yost 5

Grizzlies 10 15 11 21 57

Pirates 23 9 16 16 64

G. Draper 6, C. Mecham 14, B. Smith 24, C. Smith 2, P. Yost 11