Evanston falls to Cheyenne East

Red Devils learn in defeat

Josh Hall
Posted 1/7/18

After knocking off top-ranked Laramie on Friday, Evanston came up short with a 77-69 loss against Cheyenne East, the No. 2 team in the state, on Saturday.

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Evanston falls to Cheyenne East

Red Devils learn in defeat

Posted

CHEYENNE — Evanston High School boys’ basketball coach Lex Cornia knows the Red Devils are not the favorite to win a Class 4A state championship.

At least not from a state-wide perspective.

But after a three-day performance at the Cheyenne Invitational, the Red Devils might have some basketball-minded people across Wyoming thinking.

After knocking off top-ranked Laramie on Friday, Evanston came up short with a 77-69 loss against Cheyenne East, the No. 2 team in the state, on Saturday.

“I think our guys know we’re good enough to play with and beat anybody,” Cornia said in a phone interview on Sunday. “But at the same time, we’re no body’s favorite to win (a state championship). We have to earn what we get, and I think our guys have bought into that more.”

Evanston, ranked fifth in 4A, held a 55-52 lead after the third quarter. That’s when East (7-4) started to pull ahead.

The Thunderbirds, who have not lost to a Wyoming team this season, outscored Evanston (6-3) 25-12 in the final period to pull away for the victory.

“I was very happy with our first three quarters,” Cornia said. “I thought we really took the fight to them. We were physical, we established ourselves, we didn’t try to be better athletes, we just tried to be better basketball players.

“I thought in the fourth quarter, we tried to match their speed, their quickness and their jumping ability. We’re just not there yet. We have to win games in different ways.”

But Cornia believes the Red Devils know that now. He believes Evanston can learn from Saturday’s experience.

“I thought that fourth quarter taught us a lesson,” he said. “We have to play a certain style and a certain way — with more toughness and more physicality — in order to keep these more athletic teams on the ground.”

Chase Critchfield poured in a game-high 31 points, while Braxton Hiatt added 17 to lead the way for the Red Devils.

Demetrius Mccord scored 22 points — nine in the fourth quarter — to lead three players in double figures for the Thunderbirds. Erik Oliver finished with 17 points and Gabe Patton tallied 16.

“We’ve seen the best athletes in the state, so far, in Laramie and East,” Cornia said. “I think our confidence is high, but at the same time, I think we see the work ahead of us.”

East held a 21-18 lead after the first quarter and had a 34-33 advantage entering the break. Evanston held a three-point lead after the third quarter, but that’s as close as the Red Devils would get.

“Our guys played hard,” Cornia said. “They wanted that game. You could see the effort and the intensity. We just came up short.”