The Mountain View High School boys’ basketball team made it a clean sweep over a pair of familiar foes last week, downing Kemmerer and Pinedale to give the Buffalos the season sweep over both teams.

Mountain View (14-5, 4-0 in 3A Southwest) began the week’s action with a 51-48 home win over Kemmerer (7-15, 4-2 in 2A Southwest); the Buffs followed that Friday with a 61-45 win on the road at Pinedale (6-13, 0-4 in 4A Southwest).

“We did all right last week,” said MVHS head coach Dustin Rees. “They were good wins. We were battling a lot of illness, so it was good for us. We didn’t play very well, but we got the wins.”

Buffalos 51,

Kemmerer 48

At home against Kemmerer, the Buffalos started off well, building a substantial lead before fading down the stretch.

Mountain View led 29-21 at the half, though the Rangers took advantage of Mountain View’s sluggish second half to pull within three late in the fourth before losing 51-48.

“I was frustrated with the way we ended that game,” Rees said. “We only won by three. We really tried to give the game away late — we had a 12-point lead with three minutes to go. We made some mental errors, and Kemmerer’s height kind of got to us in the paint.”

Mountain View had three players finish the game in double figures, led by 19 points from Briggin Bluemel, who also led the team in rebounds with seven. Hunter Meeks netted 11 to go along with five boards, while Braeden Walk chipped in 10, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Caden Sweep, recently promoted to the varsity from the JV squad, had a solid outing, scoring five points and leading the team in assists with three.

“We were able to finish, but it’s not how we wanted to finish,” Rees said. “I think illness and a kid not playing was a factor, but we have to learn to deal with that, because it could happen at the regional tournament. But we found a way to win, which was good. But we definitely have to get better.”

Buffalos 61, Pinedale 45

Mountain View had an easier time on Friday on the road at Pinedale, taking a 28-23 halftime lead and blowing it open with 19 third-quarter points.

The Wranglers played Mountain View straight up in the fourth quarter, but by then the damage was done — the Buffalos returned home with a decisive 61-45 win.

“The Pinedale game was similar to the Kemmerer game in that we built a pretty good lead that we struggled to hold on to late,” Rees said. “We ended up winning by 16, but we didn’t finish well.”

Senior Braeden Walk had a monster game for the Buffalos, knocking down seven shots from behind the arc en route to a game-high 27 points.

Hunter Meeks followed with 13 points and dished off five assists to lead the team. Briggin Bluemel recorded a double-double in the winning effort, netting 11 points and pulling down 14 boards.

As the lone player off the bench, Caden Sweep had another solid game, scoring four points to go along with two rebounds and three assists. Ashton Schofield also finished with four points.

Rees noted Sweep’s performance in these last two games as a sign of good things to come from the junior, especially heading into the postseason.

“The one kid that stepped up because we needed him to was Caden Sweep,” Rees said. “He played in the absence of Luke Branson and did a tremendous job for us. The good thing about it is we are now one player deeper than we were two weeks ago, which is good heading into this weekend and the regional tournament. I have a lot of trust in Caden.”

The Buffalos close out the regular season this week, having played Bridger Valley rival Lyman (8-12, 1-3 in 3A Southwest) on the road Thursday; they’ll host Big Piney (14-5, 3-1 in 3A Southwest) in the season finale Friday.

“These are two big games for the conference, as far as regional seeding,” Rees said. “As long as we win one of the games, we should be the No. 1 seed. We’ll get Lyman on their floor, and get comfortable over there because we’ll be back there next week.”