Coming out of the chute Thursday with a crushing 36-54 loss to Tongue River, reaching the state tournament seemed to be slipping from the grasp of the Pine Bluffs Lady Hornets as they entered the consolation round and a longer path to the state tournament.

But with victories over Wright (57-39) and Sundance (48-36) the Lady Hornets guaranteed themselves a slot in the big show with a showdown with the Southeast Lady Cyclones left to determine the Lady Hornets seeding at state. Dropping the game to the Lady Cyclones, 36-45, the Lady Hornets nabbed the last berth for the state tournament, finished fourth at the 2A East regionals and will face Wyoming Indian today in the first round of the state tournament.

"Tongue River is a very good basketball team," said Lady Hornets head coach Bob Cochran. "They’re very tall and we didn’t match up with them very well,"

Cochran said his team made some adjustments at the half and played a much better game in the third and fourth quarters.

In the Tongue River contest, Brittney Bowman was the top scorer with 15 points while Laura Gross got to the ball for six rebounds to lead the team.

Dropping into the consolation round, the Lady Hornets next faced the Wright Lady Panthers and dominated the game from beginning to end.

"We came out the first half and

played solid defense," Cochran said.

Noticing the Wright defense was trapping the Purple and Gold offense on the corners, Cochran adjusted his game plan driving more up the middle and taking the outside shot to great effect.

"When you get to this point in the tournament, it’s either do or die and I thought the girls handled the pressure very well," Cochran said.

Bowman again had the hot hand nailing several three-point shots on her way to leading the team with 23 points overall while Johnna Graves was the top rebounder with 10.

Facing another do or die game, the Lady Hornets again rose to the challenge, knocking off Sundance and punching their ticket to the state tournament.

"We started a little slow but got things going in the second quarter," Cochran said.

"Defensively we played well in third quarter giving us a huge advantage going into the fourth,"

Sitting atop her normal spot as the top shooter was Bowman with 16 points while Cassidy Smith was the game’s top rebounder with seven.

By the time the Lady Hornets squared off against the Lady Cyclones just a few hours after their contest with Sundance, Cochran said his team was noticeably tired.

"We just couldn’t get the offense going like we needed to," said Cochran.

In the loss to the Lady Cyclones, Bowman added 20 points to her impressive tournament total while Conner Graves was the top rebounder with five.

Entering the state tournament as the 2A East’s fourth seed means the Lady Hornets will open the tourney against the 2A West’s first seed, Wyoming Indian. Tip off is slated for 6 p.m., today at Casper College.