The Mountain View boys’ basketball team had a solid showing at the first tournament of the 2024-25 season, posting a 2-2 record at the Bridger Valley Tournament, co-hosted by Mountain View and Lyman.

The Buffalos opened the tournament with a 49-45 win over Farson-Eden on Thursday, the first of two Class 1A opponents it would face in the tourney. Mountain View stumbled Friday against Rich, losing 62-51, then lost the first of two contests Saturday against 1A Cokeville, 52-35. The Buffalos were able to regroup, and closed out the tournament on a positive note, beating Big Piney Saturday afternoon, 62-50.

“When you look Big Picture, I think we’re pretty happy with how things went,” said MVHS head coach Dustin Rees. “We were super-disappointed with how we played Saturday morning against Cokeville that first half — Cokeville’s a really good team, but I just felt like we were not prepared for that morning. But I thought the way we played the second half — and then obviously against Big Piney that afternoon — we finished the tournament on a high note.”

Mountain View is on the road this weekend, closing out the 2024 portion of its schedule at the Flaming Gorge Classic in Green River and Rock Springs. The Buffalos will square off against a pair of 4A schools in Riverton and Rock Springs, as well as a familiar foe in 2A Kemmerer.

“We’re really going to just try to prepare for Riverton — do a full scout on them, prepare for that game,” Rees explained. “They have a couple of big kids that are pretty good, a really good shooting guard. So we’re just preparing for them — haven’t really talked about Kemmerer and Green River yet. We’ll just play one game at a time.”

“I feel like Green River will be super-athletic — we played them this summer, and they’re a lot like us, actually,” Rees added. “Kind of under-sized, and like to play fast. Should be a good game for us. Kemmerer — we saw them last year, didn’t see them at all this summer. Traditionally we usually have a pretty good game with them. I’m glad we get to match up with them, because they usually come to our tournament – they went to Glenrock this year. I’m glad to see they got put on our schedule at Green River; it’s a fun rivalry.”

Buffalos 49, Farson-Eden 45

Mountain View opened the Bridger Valley Tournament Thursday against 1A Farson-Eden. Farson jumped out to an early 15-9 lead, and led 25-23 at the break.

The Buffalos got hot in the third quarter, outscoring Farson 17-7, then held on in the fourth for the 49-45 win.

“Farson’s so big — they’ve always been a super-competitive team, but they are so big and long,” Rees said. “We don’t have one kid that’s as tall as any of their kids. They kind of dominated us inside, but our guard pressure did a good job in the second half to get the win. To battle against their size and actually out-rebound them — we were pretty happy with that.”

Senior captain Dash Madsen led the charge with 17 points, followed by Ashton Colangelo with 11 points and Casey Walker with 10 points, to go along with six rebounds and three assists.

While they didn’t score any points, Isac Linford and Race Carr led the team in rebounds, pulling down 12 and nine, respectively.

Rich 62, Buffalos 51

Squaring off against Rich on Day 2 of the Bridger Valley Tournament, the Buffalos got down early to the Rebels and trailed 36-27 at the break. Mountain View played the second half nearly even, but was unable to bridge the gap, falling 62-51.

“I think Rich is probably the best team we’ve played — they’re good, and they’re deep and they shot the ball well,” Rees said. “They ended up getting us by 10, I think. But I think we actually played pretty well — if we had more time to prepare for them, we might be able to close the gap. But I thought we played pretty well, for as good as Rich County is this year.”

Dash Madsen paced the Buffalos with 25 points — including three 3-pointers — to go along with three assists and three steals. Ashton Colangelo also finished in double figures, netting 10 points, and pulling down a team-high nine rebounds. Casey Walker added five points, while Jay Kaiser and Isac Linford chipped in four points apiece. Kolby Roitz closed out the scoring with three points.

Cokeville 52, Buffalos 35

The Buffalos opened play Saturday against Cokeville, the No. 3-ranked team in 1A. The Panthers’ defense held Mountain View to single digits for the first three quarters of the contest, though the fourth quarter belonged to the Buffalos in the 52-35 loss, setting the stage for a strong showing later in the day against Big Piney.

“We were down a guy early against Cokeville — that kind of got us out of rhythm.” Rees said. “We just weren’t prepared. And I knew Cokeville was going to be good with their pressure and their defense — we just struggled that first half. Second half, I thought we played well — we had some good talk at halftime, and that led into the Big Piney game, where I felt like we played well the entire time. It was a great way to end the tournament.”

Dash Madsen led the Buffalos in scoring with 10 points, followed by Kolby Roitz with eight points; Casey Walker and Ashton Colangelo finished with five points apiece. Walker led the team in rebounds with six, and steals, with three.

Buffalos 62, Big Piney 50

Mountain View closed out the Bridger Valley Tournament Saturday evening with a 62-50 win over Big Piney.

The Buffalos controlled the action from the opening tip, and after a close first quarter, exploded for 23 points in the second quarter to pull away for good, and end the tournament on a positive note.

“We knew Big Piney was going to zone us, so we really worked on our zone offense this week,” Rees said. “We shot the ball pretty well — we did a better job of getting the ball inside. I thought our ball movement was really good against Big Piney.”

Four Buffalos finished the game in double figures, led by Dash Madsen, with 16 points. Jay Kaiser followed with 14 points, while Casey Walker and Ashton Colangelo finished with 10 points apiece. Kolby Roitz added six points, while Isac Linford and Race Carr chipped in four points and two points, respectively.

Kaiser, Walker and Coangelo grabbed six rebounds each to lead the team; Kaiser also had a team-high five assists.

Rees added that it’s customary for a team captain to speak after each game, and Madsen was chosen to speak after the Big Piney win.

“Our captain — Dash Madsen — spoke after the win, and thought we did a really good job of finishing the game, and making free throws down the stretch to secure the win,” Rees said. “That was big for us — we talk a lot about free throws, and winning games late. I think that might be the difference — this year, we could be really good at that, compared to years past.”