After four games on the road, Rock Springs is heading back home. They will take on the Riverton Wolverines at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Saturday, Rock Springs opened the new year with a less-than-successful 73-60 defeat to Central. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Rock Springs in their matchups with Central: they've now lost nine in a row.
Meanwhile, Riverton faced Cody in a battle between two of the state's top teams. Riverton came out on top against Cody by a score of 58-48 on Saturday.
Riverton's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Parker Paxton led the charge by going 7 for 10 from beyond the arc en route to 26 points and 0 assists. That makes it three consecutive games in which Paxton has scored at least a third of Riverton's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Darrick DeVries, who scored 13 points along with five assists.
Rock Springs bumped their record down to 3-8 with that loss, which was their fourth straight on the road. As for Riverton, the victory got them back to even at 6-6.
Rock Springs came up short against Riverton in their previous matchup back in March of 2023, falling 54-41. Thankfully for Rock Springs, Kade Gabrielson (who scored 14 points along with six rebounds) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.
