In a playoff game Monday to determine the last seed for regional play against Lingle-Fort Laramie, the Pine Bluffs Hornets’ season came to a crushing end when the Purple and Gold fell by one point to the Doggers, 55-56. On Friday, the Hornets also went down in defeat to the Southeast Cyclones 30-59 and Saturday saw the boy’s squad hosting bitter rival, the Burns Broncs with the same results, as Pine Bluffs again lost 37-48.

"Lingle did a good job of changing their pressure on us to force some mistakes they capitalized on to cut the lead from 10 to three in very short order," said Pine Bluffs basketball head coach Pat Walter.

Heading into the locker room at the half mark, the Hornets held a three-point lead, 26-23. Walter said each team raised the intensity level in the second half and a tight back and forth on the score board ensued.

"We made one of two free throws to take the lead with just 16 seconds left," Walter said.

Inbounding the ball, Lingle drove down the court, scoring on a drive draw leaving the Hornets with five seconds left on the clock and regionals slipping from their grasp.

"We pushed the ball to the endline on a pass and had a good look at a mid range jumper that missed at the buzzer," Walter said.

"It was a fun game to be a part of, unfortunately we came out on the wrong end.," the coach added.

Walter added he was already looking forward to next season and making another run at returning to the state tournament.

In the contest, Tanner Eastman and Nolan Jeffres were the game’s top shooters, each nabbing 14 buckets while Blayne Gilbert was the top rebounder with five.

In Friday’s contest versus Southeast, Ryan May and Chris Gorman shared the top shooting honors with seven points each and Gilbert again was the top rebounder with five.

Saturday’s match up against Burns saw May shooting for 18 points and the top spot while May, Jeffres and Eyrn Smith all tied with four rebounds to lead the team.