WRIGHT – The Wheatland High School boys basketball team opened the season last weekend in Wright at the Coal Miner Classic and went 3-1 to lead the field.

“The Wright tournament was a chore for our club,” coach Mich Cochran said. “We played the first four games of the day, back to back, both days. I was really proud of the way our team responded. We played through some adversity and fatigue. 

“Getting out of there with the three wins was great for our kids,” he added. “We have some work to do, as we are still trying to find our identity and establish our rotations. Our lineup is far from set. Playing five games Friday through Monday is a chore, really no time to prepare or scout, so we are just focused on our execution and adjusting to what our opponents present.”

On Friday, Wheatland took on the Wright Panthers and were down 23-22 at halftime.  In the second half, coach Mick Cochran’s team-first philosophy shined with balanced scoring, good ball movement and aggressive team defense. Wheatland battled back, outscoring the Panthers 36-20 in the second half for a 58-43 win.   Eleven Bulldogs contributed in the scoring column. Jamison Brown and Clayton Iacovetto pulled down five rebounds apiece. 

Wheatland squared off against Greybull immediately after game one Friday and fell 38-37 on a buzzer beater off a missed free throw. Trigg Peasley led all scorers with 22 points, including 5-of-5 from the three-point arc. Brown played key minutes and finished with nine points and five rebounds.  Scoring was hard to come by against the bigger Buffs and only four players made the scoring column for the Bulldogs. 

On Saturday, the Bulldogs again fell behind early against the Glenrock Herders and trailed by as many as 12 in the first half.  Wheatland battled back to eventually take the lead in the fourth period. Peasley completed a three-point play and put the Bulldogs up with less than two minutes to play.  Wheatland ‘s defense clamped down on Glenrock’s hot shooting Tucker Bopp and ended with a 55-53 win. 

Similar game 1, the Bulldogs’ win was marked by balanced scoring.  Peasley finish with 21, Iacovetto added 12 and Luke Anderson, Trevor Vaughn contributed five points apiece.  Eight Bulldogs finished in the scoring column. 

In their final game against Big Horn, Wheatland faced an aggressive man-to-man defense and points were at a premium.  A back-and-forth game ended at the free throw line.  Kobey Preuit and Peasley hit 13 free throws between them to seal the 36-34 victory. Vaughn went 3-of-4 from the arc and added key scores in long droughts for the Bulldog offense.  Wheatland will travel to Douglas this weekend and take on Lovell and top-ranked Riverton and third-ranked Cody in the 3A East-West Challenge.