Arvada-Clearmont shot and missed. It turned the ball over and was unable to slow down Snake River. Nothing went right for the East Regional champion Panthers for the first 8 minutes Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Wyoming State High School Class 1A Girls Basketball Championships.
Snake River built a 19-0 lead before Arvada-Clearmont scored four points in the final minute of the first quarter.
Eventually, the Panthers battled back to take a 38-37 lead on two free throws from Maddison Troll to start the fourth quarter and pulled away down the stretch for an improbable 55-44 victory.
“We’ve faced adversity before,” Arvada-Clearmont head coach Sarah Walker said. “We just said we had a job to do and we couldn’t get rattled.”
The Panthers will face St. Stephens, which rallied to beat Hanna 46-43, in Friday’s late semifinal. The earlier semifinal will be a Southwest Conference affair between Cokeville and Farson.
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Arvada-Clearmont made 9 of 12 free throws in the final 8 minutes to dethrone the defending state champs and advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2008.
“We had to get that monkey off our backs,” Walker said. “We made it here two years ago and went 0-2. This year we said we’re not just coming to state, but we’re going to make some noise.”
While the St. Stephens fans definitely made their voices heard, it took a while before the Eagles (22-2) responded in kind. They trailed Hanna 39-31 heading to the fourth quarter, but proceeded to go on a 13-0 run.
“I think this team is trying to kill me before I turn 23,” St. Stephens head coach Rachel Rapp said. “We were slow to start and we were disappointed with the way we were playing. We know we can play better.”
The Eagles took their first lead at 40-39 on a 3-pointer from senior Martina Brown, who finished with a game-high 23 points.
Hanna inbounded the ball under its own basket with 5 seconds remaining and a chance to tie the game, but threw the ball away.
The first game of the day started with as much excitement as the late games, with Farson clinging to a 21-20 halftime lead against Lingle-Fort Laramie.
But the Pronghorns (21-7) opened the second half on an 11-0 run and the Doggers were never able to recover.
“I thought we had some first-game jitters,” Farson head coach Chris Clark said. “Thankfully our defense kept us in it and then we were able to settle down.”
Farson got 22 points from Kaytlyn Keeler to help it overcome 28.6 percent shooting (22 of 77). The Pronghorns also benefited from 35 Doggers turnovers.
The win sets up a third meeting this season with Cokeville, which handled Kaycee 53-30. The Panthers (24-2) won the previous two games against the rival Pronghorns.
“I like playing in a tough conference,” Cokeville junior Kamille Nate said. “It makes all of us better.”
It’s something that Nate and her older teammates have passed down to freshmen Emmie Barnes, who finished with a game-high 19 points, and Kylee Dayton.
“Those two played huge minutes for us all year,” Cokeville head coach Briant Teichert said. “They’re comfortable out there and that’s because of the upperclassmen.”