A season filled with highs and lows ended on a high note for the Powell Middle School eighth grade girls’ basketball team, as the Cubs finished the season on a two game winning streak to take home third place after an 11-7 season.

The season started strong for the Cubs, reeling off five straight wins.

Those wins came against Laurel 51-14, Lander 60-19, Riverton 47-5, Burlington 26-14 and Worland 35-12.

Facing off with their two most difficult opponents back-to-back, the Cubs dropped contests to Lovell 40-24 and Cody 44-16, before losing a pair of games to opponents over the mountains — Buffalo 23-22 and Sheridan 40-26 — to move to 5-4.

Following those losses the Cubs rebounded and earned two straight wins, defeating Rocky Mountain 39-17 and Worland 45-6, before another difficult loss to Lovell 39-23.

The highlight of the season for the Cubs came in their home game against Cody in front of the Powell Middle School student body after an Aspen French basket with 30 seconds left gave them a 28-27 win.

“I’d say the highlight of the season was probably the Cody game. That was a good win, it was kind of the cherry on top,” coach Dale Estes said. “Cody was definitely the top team, they only had one loss this season and that was to us.”

After that win the Cubs finished the regular season with a loss to Big Horn 37-27.

Heading into the postseason tournament, the Cubs defeated Riverton 49-9 in the first round, before another loss to Lovell in the semifinals 34-21.

“I believe as seventh graders they beat Lovell last year every time, but Lovell, they’ve got a really good team,” Estes said. “They really hustle and they’ve got some good 3-point shooters.”

That loss dropped the Cubs down to a matchup with Worland which they won 50-26, before defeating Lander in the third place game 45-33.

Estes said that the ‘B’ team had a near .500 season but ended the year on a two game winning streak.

Offensively throughout the year the Cubs had a strong contingent of guards, made up of French, Addie Gillett, Lucy Ostermiller and Charlie Taylor who Estes said was one of the most improved players by season’s end.

“She (Taylor) is just all over the place. She plays really aggressive defense. She’s quick and we did have some good speed,” Estes said.

In addition to strong guard play, he said that the Cubs had a number of tall players down low, including Breiyah Bonander, Reagan Clifford and Taylor Sweet.

“That’s probably one of the bigger teams that I’ve had,” Estes said. 

Throughout the season, Estes said that the Cubs primarily struggled with one aspect of the game in particular.

“We struggled with shooting,” Estes said. “That was probably our biggest deficit during the year. Most of the time we did pretty good rebounding, offensively, defensively and transition.”

He said the Cubs were strong in transition and pressing their opponent, with some of their best offense coming after pressing other teams.

He said another thing they struggled with was health throughout the year, as players got sick throughout the season which led to different players being out for games.

Moving forward he hopes that the Cubs will continue to work on their game in the offseason, with those moving to play at the high school level looking for success.

“We had overall I thought a really successful season,” Estes said. “It would have been nice to maybe get into the championship game. I know that was their goal to get there and play Cody again, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. We’ve got to use that to our advantage, to work harder and sometimes that makes us better in the end. When we don’t get some of those goals that we want, it requires us to think a little bit on what we could have done better. And hopefully they’ll do that. The ones that are going to stick it out in high school, they’ll work on those areas that they need growth in and they’ll have success there.”