TEN SLEEP - After a rough go of it the week before, the Ten Sleep Pioneers showed during the weekend's games they will not be folding anytime soon, in fact they're going to fight until the bitter end.

Against Burlington and Meeteetse the previous week, Ten Sleep scored a combined total of 45 points. Over the weekend vs. Dubois and St. Stephens the Pioneers bounced back scoring a combined 95 points, 51 of which came against Dubois.

While the Pioneers (4-12 overall, 0-6 1A Northwest conference) did lose both contests, 61-51 to Dubois (5-13 overall, 2-5 1A Northwest conference) and 57-44 vs. St. Stephens (6-6 overall, 3-2 1A Northwest conference), the improvement from last weekend's poor outings impressed coach Ben Schwarz.

"These games were a big deal for us. They were learning situations and how to handle them, like scoring points with the clock off, foul situations or how to keep going to something that has been working for us," said Schwarz.

The losses stung for the Pioneers and their coach but more importantly it gave this young team some mental toughness.

Schwarz said, "Mostly it was a big character reveal for us. The losses are a disappointment but I'm OK with it in the sense that (St. Stephens) is the No. 2 team in the conference and possibly the No. 2 team in the entire West region. For us to fall behind then battle back against St. Stephens was big, then looking at how we played better against Dubois shows these boys are getting better."

The improvements that stood out to Schwarz were shot selection and defense, and more specifically the team's closeouts.

"That was the biggest positive for us," said Schwarz when speaking about his team's closeouts, "We haven't been able to closeout or stay committed on that end. We'll closeout hard then let guys go around us or we'll keep guys from going around us but give up on the closeout. I was glad that we finally put the whole package together."

Schwarz added, "Defense is going to be the reason why teams advance in the postseason. There isn't a team this season that's that dominant on offense so whoever plays the best defense at regionals is going to make it through."

In both games the Pioneers ball movement allowed for the team to take higher percentage shots. Whether that was getting the ball down low to freshman big man Zane Taylor, creating driving lanes for guard Brayden Fettig and wing Adam Thurston or open looks for guard Corey Rice.

"Our shot selection was very good, our shooting percentage was low and if we're anywhere near our goal we're 15 points better. But I was pleased with the shots they took and the ball movement, it's very encouraging," said Schwarz.

The Pioneers are locked in for the 1A West regional play-in game vs. Dubois. Before that game the Pioneers will close out the regular season vs. WyoPreps No.1-ranked Burlington Huskies Saturday in Burlington. Then on Monday they will play Dubois for a shot at the regional tournament.

With the schedule looking as it does, coach Schwarz wants this week of practice to be a focused on two things, defense and taking care of the basketball.

"Absolutely defense and dealing with pressure defense. Burlington is a pressure defense and a physical one at that. So we need to move the ball and attack when we have the opportunities. Last time we held the ball too long and let (Burlington) stand right over us and pressure us," said Schwarz. "Putting an emphasis on defense and handling defensive pressure will be good for us and something that will carry over into our play-in game vs. Dubois."

At time of press the details of the Ten Sleep/Dubois play-in game were still to be determined.