By Josh Hall

Herald Sports Editor

EVANSTON – It’s one of the oldest sayings in sports: defense wins championships.

And that’s what the Evanston High School girls’ basketball team’s ultimate goal has been all year.

The Red Devils proved on Friday night the importance that saying is in a 55-25 4A West Conference win against Jackson on senior night and Evanston’s final home game of the season.

“I think we can definitely take away some positive from the way we played defensively today,” Evanston coach Jeremy Fessler said. “The girls saw, sometimes you’re going to have trouble scoring. But if you keep the defense solid, you fly around, you always have a chance to win.

“They always say defense wins championships and there’s no doubt about that.”

The Lady Red Devils are now 12-4 overall and 4-1 in the 4A West. Now Evanston will play its final five conference games on the road before regional play starts March 1 in Jackson.

Evanston senior Emmery Wagstaff led all scorers with 26 points. Senior Megan Fisher and junior Ajahonna Archuleta both finished with eight points to help lead the offense for the Lady Red Devils.

“Our goal is to get these next five wins to go 9-1 in conference,” Wagstaff said. “We’d be pretty set going into state if we accomplish that. That’s our goal, to win all five of them.”

The top two teams in the 4A East and 4A West conference get an automatic bid to the state tournament, which kicks off March 8 in Casper.

But first, the Lady Red Devils’ hope to take care of business closing out the regular season.

“Each game is going to be tougher and tougher and tougher,” Fessler said. “We’ve just got to go in and battle as hard as we can and see where the chips fall.”

After Friday, Evanston, the fifth-ranked team in 4A, was in second place in the 4A West Conference. Kelly Walsh, ranked third in Class 4A after beating the Lady Red Devils last week, lead the conference with an 11-4 overall record and a 4-0 conference record. Rock Springs is third in the 4A West at 8-7 and 2-2 in conference play.

The Lady Red Devils play at Green River on Feb. 9, Rock Springs on Feb. 10, Kelly Walsh on Feb. 16, Natrona on Feb. 17, before wrapping up the regular season at Jackson on Feb. 24.

“We want to win these next five road games and hopefully get the No. 1 or No. 2 seed at regionals,” said Evanston senior Hailey Barker, who finished Friday’s contest with five points.

Evanston hopes to build off Friday’s 30-point win against Jackson (4-10, 1-4 4A West).

“Against Kelly Walsh (last Saturday), we didn’t have this,” Fessler said. “We struggled defensively the whole game. We were always in the wrong position. One girl was always out of position. You can’t have that against good teams, but we fixed that tonight and took away things (Jackson) does well.”

By their own accounts, the Lady Red Devils did not play one of their better offensive games of the season. Evanston jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first two minutes of the contest, following a three-point play by Wagstaff.

The Lady Red Devils extended the lead to 18-4 with two minutes left in the opening period, and the score would remain that way for the rest of the quarter.

 “We struggled (offensively) in the six-minute mark in the first quarter, all the way to the two-minute mark in the second quarter,” Fessler said. “We couldn’t get the ball in the basket, we were stagnant on offense, but our defense stayed strong.”

Evanston outscored Jackson 11-3 in the second quarter, 17-10 in the third and 9-8 in the fourth.

The Lady Red Devils acknowledged they can’t have offenses lapses in post-season play.

“Against the good teams, we’re going to have to hit our shots,” Wagstaff said.

Seniors Allysa Dean, Tayler Groll, Barker, Fisher and Wagstaff left the floor with just over two minutes left in the fourth quarter to a standing ovation in a packed gymnasium.

“It was a great win, especially on senior night and our last time playing on this court,” Barker said. “I think we gave it our all and it was a good turnout.”

Added Wagstaff: “I think it was pretty special. For the seniors, it was our last playing in this gym. To get a win that dominant, it was just a good ending.”