Even though the Rawlins Outlaws scored an imposing 65 points on Friday, the Laramie Plainsmen still came out on top. Laramie walked away with a 72-65 victory over Rawlins. Given Laramie's advantage in MaxPreps' Wyoming basketball rankings (they are ranked fourth, while Rawlins is ranked 34th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Laramie was led to victory by Jaden Smith and Neil Summers. Smith scored 16 points along with seven rebounds and six assists, while Summers dropped a double-double on 26 points and 15 rebounds. Summers has been hot recently, having posted eight or more rebounds the last eight times he's played. Another player making a difference was Max Alexander, who scored 11 points.
Rawlins' loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Jose Morales, who scored 27 points along with six assists and two steals, and Jaxson Allard who scored 25 points along with nine rebounds and two steals. Morales continues to roll, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Damien Vialpando, who scored four points along with two steals.
Laramie pushed their record up to 9-1 with that victory, which was their fourth straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Rawlins, their loss dropped their record down to 4-6.
Laramie will be playing in front of their home fans against East at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Rawlins won't have much time to rest: their next game is against Buffalo at 3:00 p.m. on January 13th. Hopefully Buffalo focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 12 last Saturday.
