Camel girls beat Casper Natrona

Mitch Holst has been preaching all season that his Campbell County girls need to attack the basketball and play physical.

And Friday night they finally got the message.

With senior Dani Williams on the bench with five fouls and the Camels trailing Casper Natrona by three points with four minutes still left in the third quarter of a Class 4A state basketball semifinal, things looked pretty bleak. But that when Gillette kicked it into gear.

McCorra Ford scored 16 of her game-high 21 points in the second half and every Camel that saw playing time contributed as Gillette rallied past the Fillies 54-44 and into Saturday's state championship game.

The Camels will play Cheyenne East at 5 p.m. in the Casper Events Center. East, which beat Gillette in two of the team's three meetings this season, got to the title game with a 54-39 win over Sheridan.

Gillette trailed Natrona 25-21 at the half and were down 29-26 when Williams, the team's second-leading scorer fouled out of the game. But that seemed to spark the Camels, all of them.

"Dani is a huge part of this team, she always has been and always will be," Ford said. "When she fouled out, all the girls, we really dug done deep and we wanted to do it for her."

Ford scored 21 points, eight of those coming from the free throw line. Natrona attempted 19 free throws in the first half to zero for Gillette. But the Camels made 15 of 21 tries in the second half, many of those helped ice the game.

"I asked the ref at halftime about that and he said that he felt that we weren't attacking," Holst said. "So I told the girls that and we starting to attack in the second half. And, to me, that was the difference."

Toms finished the night with 15 points while Shelby Johnson and Julia Seamans had four big points each. Kaylee Johnson led the Fillies with 19 points.