Horsemen bounce back, win

The bounce-back effect can be strong in basketball. Witness the Plains Horsemen’s experience with it last week as they were bounced 66-35 by the Savage Heat in Hot Springs Friday and then promptly bounced back with a convincing 83-54 win over the visiting St. Regis Tigers in Plains Saturday.

In the stretch run of a fight for seeding position into the District 14C tournament in Pablo Feb. 14-16, the Horsemen have two more 14C games this week, at Noxon Friday and versus Two Eagle River in Pablo Saturday.

“This is the time we need to be playing our best basketball,” coach Tyrel Allen said. “We still have an outside chance of getting in a more favorable position for the tournament, every game counts from here on out.”

Allen was almost, but not quite at a loss for words in talking about what went down with his H-Men last week. “We were flat-out out-worked in Hot Springs, we did not play with any intensity,” he said. “We didn’t shoot well, didn’t rebound – just didn’t execute on either end.”

Allen stewed about it through the night and into the next day before meeting with his team before the St. Regis game, not sure what to say to his team. “I decided showing them the film from the night before was the best thing to do,” he said, “seeing for themselves how they played.”

That seemed to turn the trick as the Horsemen never let the Tigers into the game after that meeting, building a 19-11 lead after one quarter and extending it to 46-26 by halftime. Jake Weyer scored a season-high 21 points to pace the Horsemen, Treydon Brouillette chipped in 15 more, Matt McCracken 11, Nathan McNulty eight, Esvin Reyes, Tucker Foster and Orion Pry-Hyde six apiece, Derick Curry four and Duncan Chisholm, Parker Flock and Nathan Feliksen two each.

Ian Farris scored 19 points, Caleb Ball 16 and Adam Ball 10 for St. Regis.

Reyes scored 11 points and Brouillete 10 to lead Plains in Friday’s game at Hot Springs. Please see other story for Hot Springs scoring.