Evanston claimed a 59-51 win against Green River on Friday before holding off Rock Springs for a 65-60 win in overtime on Saturday to sweep the two-game conferece road series.
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By Josh Hall
Herald Sports Editor
The Evanston High School girls’ basketball team doesn’t go into a conference road series with the word “split” on its mind.
The Lady Red Devils are out to win, regardless where the game is being played.
And they did just that as Evanston claimed a 59-51 win against Green River on Friday before holding off Rock Springs for a 65-60 win in overtime on Saturday to sweep the two-game conferece road series.
“Anytime you go on the road in conference, the games are difficult,” Evanston coach Jeremy Fessler said Monday morning. “Both games were completely different in how we played defensively and how we played offensively. The kids fought hard and came through with two huge wins on the road for us.”
The No. 5-ranked Lady Red Devils are 14-4 overall and 6-1 in the 4A West Conference. Kelly Walsh leads the conference with a 13-4 overall record and a 6-0 conference mark.
Natrona (9-8, 3-3) and Rock Springs (9-9, 3-4) round out the top-four teams in the league.
Evanston will make the trip to Casper later this week to take on Kelly Walsh on Friday and Natrona on Saturday. The Lady Red Devils finish the regular season at Jackson on Feb. 24. Jackson is also the site for the Class 4A regional championships March 1-3.
The top-two teams in each conference get an automatic bid to play in the state championship March 8-10 in Casper.
“It’s a huge weekend for us,” Fessler said. “You always go into that Casper trip looking for a split. But we’re trying get two, of course.”
The Lady Red Devils still have a chance to be the No. 1 seed going into regional play if they win-out the rest of the way.
Fessler said he hopes his team can use Friday’s game against Green River and Saturday’s game against Rock Springs as a building block going ahead.
“We haven’t seen quite that much scrappiness from these girls in a while now,” he said.
Against Green River, Evanston jumped out to a 18-13 first-quarter lead and never looked back.
Seniors Emmery Wagstaff and Megan Fisher both led the team in scoring with 13 points each. Hailey Barker added 11 and Ajahonna Archuleta finished with seven points in the contest.
“On Friday, we struggled defensively as far as the physicality and the scrappiness of Green River,” Fessler said. “Offensively, we knew we had an advantage inside. We were constantly going to Megan and AJ. They made some big plays for us.”
Saturday’s game was a little different.
Evanston trailed 15-10 after the first quarter, but the Lady Red Devils tied the game at 24 going into halftime.
Evanston outscored Rock Springs 17-14 in the third to take a 41-38 lead going into the fourth quarter. There, the Lady Red Devils trailed by two with a minute to play in regulation before Wagstaff hit two free throws to tie the game at 54 with 47 seconds remaining.
Evanston had a chance to win the game in regulation following a turnover by Rock Springs. The Lady Red Devils ran the clock down to 12.3 seconds and called a timeout. Evanston got off a shot but missed, sending the game to overtime.
The Lady Tigers and Lady Red Devils traded leads in the first three-and-a-half minutes of overtime. Evanston took the lead and didn’t look back after Kori Deru knocked down a 3-pointer with 30.2 seconds left.
Wagstaff followed with a steal with 19.8 seconds to play in the extra period and knocked down two free throws with 15.5 seconds remaining to give Evanston a 63-60 lead to seal it for the Lady Red Devils.
Evanston had to overcome some adversity along the way. First, the Lady Red Devils, who went into the weekend leading Class 4A in 3-point percentage and free-throw percentage, were 2 of 17 from behind the arc, and at one point in the fourth quarter, were 5 of 24 from the charity stripe.
Ky Buell didn’t make it any easier for Evanston with her game-high 36 points.
“With all those things stacked against us, we continued to battle and battle,” Fessler said. “I’m so proud of the girls for the scrappiness they showed. Friday night, we really didn’t show that. We came back Saturday, and if we wouldn’t have showed that scrappiness, we wouldn’t have gotten that win.”
Wagstaff finished with a team-high 21 points, while Fisher tallied 16. Tayler Groll added nine and Barker finished with 18 points. Archuletta was held to four points, but pulled down 14 rebounds to help lead the Lady Red Devils past Rock Springs.
