GREEN RIVER — Evanston girls’ basketball coach Jeremy Fessler isn’t sure when the last time the Lady Devils started the season with a 5-1 record.

And while he is happy with the success the program has had early, he still believes his team has plenty of room for growth.

“I’m proud of the girls,” Fessler said on Saturday. “It’s a great start for our program at 5-1 going into the break,”

Evanston picked up their fifth win of the season on Saturday after rolling to a 57-38 win against Mountain View in the final round of the Flaming Gorge Classic at Lincoln Middle School. 

The Lady Red Devils went 2-1 in the tournament, claiming a 46-27 win against Cheyenne Central on Thursday, before suffering a 65-58 loss to Thunder Basin on Friday. 

“I felt like we battled and stuck with (Thunder Basin) throughout the whole game,” said Evanston senior Emmery Wagstaff, who tallied 68 points in three games. “I think we still played well.”

Evanston was able to bounce back against Mountain View, a Class 3A team that is also off to a solid start. The Lady Buffalos are 4-2 on the year and only suffered the one loss to Evanston at the Flaming Gorge Classic.

Mountain View claimed a 64-30 win on Thursday against Rich and rolled to a 71-46 win against Jackson, on Friday. The Lady Buffalos other loss came against Green River in the second game of the season.

“The two games that we’ve lost has been because of our shooting,” Mountain View coach Jessica Moretti said. “The two games we’ve lost have been our lowest-percentage games, but overall they played a great tournament.”

On Saturday, Evanston jumped out to a 21-8 lead in the first quarter and the Red Devils never looked back.

 “We got up 10 in the first quarter and we had a chance to really bury them,” Fessler said. “We’re trying to pressure the inbounds pass. Our girls were tired. We had a tough game (Friday) night. It was up and down and physical, but we’ve got to get mentally tougher. We’ve got to get up and press. We’re letting the ball come in too easily. We’ve got to work on that and being tougher as a program.”

After being held scoreless in the first quarter, Wagstaff finished with a game-high 19 points. Megan Fisher scored 10 — eight in the first quarter to help lead the Lady Red Devils.

Haily Stephens finished with 15 points, while Charity Harmon and Lyndee Hereford both finished with eight for Mountain View. 

“Our shots weren’t going in as much as some of the other games we’ve played,” said Harmon, who finished with 48 points in the tournament. “(Evanston) definitely put some pressure on us. That definitely hurt us, but we tried our best and that’s what counts.”

Evanston held a 37-21 halftime lead over Mountain View, but the Lady Buffalos cut their deficit to 43-33 with 2:24 to play in the third after getting back-to-back jumpers from Stephens. 

The Lady Red Devils regained the momentum when Kori Deru knocked down a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Evanston a 46-43 lead entering the fourth quarter. 

“I felt like that was the hump that we needed to get over,” Moretti said.  “We held them a few possessions at (10 points), then they hit that three going into the fourth quarter. I felt like that was the change in momentum.”

Evanston outscored Mountain View 11-5 in the final period to put the game away. 

“We needed this win,” Fisher said. “It wouldn’t have been a successful weekend if we would have lost this game.”

Evanston is back in action Jan. 4-6 at the Cheyenne Tournament.

Mountain View will host Rawlins Jan. 5.

“I think we did really well,” Harmon said. “It was nice to be able to get used to all of our plays and everything and get ready for conference games.”