Red Devils sweep Cody, Riverton at home

Don Cogger, Herald Sports Editor
Posted 2/19/20

Crofts with back-to-back 20-point games

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Red Devils sweep Cody, Riverton at home

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The Evanston High School boys’ basketball team had an impressive showing over the weekend, downing Cody and Riverton to continue its late-season roll toward the state tournament.

With Friday’s 55-31 rout of Cody (6-10, 2-1 in 4A Northwest) and Saturday’s 61-54 nailbiter over Riverton (4-13, 0-3 in 4A Northwest), the Red Devils (7-12, 3-0 in 4A Southwest) have now won seven of their last eight games. With conference play resuming this week beginning with a home game against Green River Thursday, EHS head coach Lex Cornia said the team is right where it needs to be — determined, focused and ready to close out the regular season strong.

“We knew going in that both these teams [Cody and Riverton] were better than their record indicated,” Cornia said. “The Cody game kind of surprised us — I think the [loss to] Kelly Walsh earlier in the week kind of put a chip on our shoulder, and we saw that on Friday against Cody. And it was a gutsy win by the guys against Riverton Saturday afternoon.”

Red Devils 55, Cody 31

In front of a raucous home crowd Friday night, the Red Devils wasted no time setting the tone against Cody, dominating the first eight minutes of play 20-6. Evanston pushed their lead to 20 by the break at 30-10, and the Broncs couldn’t find an answer for Dawson Crofts, who netted 20 first-half points.

“It took a while for our offense to get going, but once it did, our defense was playing so well that the game was going to have the top blown off of it,” Cornia said. “But that game was a story of defense, and I know Coach Barker is happy to see we can go defend teams like that.”

A shell-shocked Cody squad was finally able to find the bottom of the net with some consistency in the second half, though they were unable to slow down the Red Devil juggernaut. Evanston outscored Cody 25-21 in the second half to cruise to a 55-31 win.

“The scoring has been so even, and that really shows what practice for us has been like,” Cornia said. “We have a lot of guys that can contribute. To see that come out in that Cody game was just awesome.”

Crofts led the Red Devils with 25 points, including three 3-pointers. Senior Chase Brady came off the bench to score eight points, while Burke Thomas scored five points, to go along with five assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Mason Ellingford finished with just two points, but led the team in rebounds with eight, seven of them on the defensive side.

Wade Bowen and Casey Periman chipped in four points apiece, and Bowen continued to impress with his defense, with five rebounds and a blocked shot.

“Wade Bowen in the Cody game, he just adds another dimension that we didn’t have earlier this season,” Cornia said. “I think it really changes the nature of our team going forward at regionals and state with what we can do against teams.”

While he enjoyed the Red Devils’ offensive output, Cornia credited the team’s defense for the win.

“It was defense,” he said. “I just don’t think we would have been capable of that a few weeks ago, especially against an explosive team. Cody has some weapons in Coy Novakovich, Hunter Hays and Duncan Radakovich. They put up a lot of points on people, so to watch our guys go out and hold them like that was pretty huge.”

Cody’s Novakovich was particularly worrisome for Cornia and his staff going into the contest, and he praised the four Red Devils tasked with keeping him under wraps.

“Novakovich is an elite-level player, and we had Casey Periman, Braxton Lind and David Baxter on him,” Cornia said. “He’s played outstanding against everybody, but our three guys sacrificed their offense a bit to concentrate on shutting Novakovich down. I’ll throw Jagger Mitchell into that mix as well, they just did a great job on all of the Cody players.”

Red Devils 61, Riverton 54

Saturday’s game against Riverton proved to be a tougher test for the Red Devils, who trailed the hot-shooting Wolverines 31-28 at the half.

“We told the guys at halftime you can’t be surprised,” Cornia said. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight, and that the teams in this conference [4A Northwest] are good. So we talked about making some adjustments defensively and tweaking the pace on our offense. And they came out and executed it.”

Seniors Dawson Crofts and Burke Thomas put the Red Devils on their backs for the second half, with Thomas scoring Evanston’s first nine points in the third quarter to cut Riverton’s lead to one at 38-37. Crofts hit a free throw and a 3-pointer to give Evanston its first lead of the second half 41-38 with just under two minutes to play in the third.

“Riverton was just playing very, very well,” Cornia said. “Every team is gonna have those nights where the scouting report doesn’t reflect how they’re playing. The stats say ‘They can’t do this,’ yet here they are. That kid [Aquilo] Friday just put on a performance, and we had to answer that. Between Dawson Crofts and Burke Thomas, they did.”

But Riverton wasn’t going away without a fight. The Wolverines retook the lead 43-42 at the start of the fourth, and it was a slugfest from there.

With the game knotted at 50-50 with just over three minutes to play, Mason Ellingford rebounded Braxton Lind’s errant shot and scored on the put-back to give the Red Devils back the lead 52-50.

With just under a minute to play and Evanston up 57-54, Red Devil senior David Baxter intercepted a Riverton pass at his own end and took it the length of the court to seal the win, as the home team held on 61-54.

Evanston had three players in double digits, led by 20 points from Crofts. Thomas finished with a season-high 15 points, including four 3-pointers in the second half.

“It was great to see Burke [Thomas] have a good game,” Cornia said.

“To see those shots go down for him after struggling for a couple of games, it’s huge. He deserves it, he’s put in the extra time working on his shot. To see it pay off is satisfying as a coach.”

Ellingford rounded out the double-digit scorers with 13 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Baxter finished with seven points, to go along with four rebounds, four assists and two steals, including the steal that iced the game for Evanston.

“That play that David Baxter made at the end where he stole the ball and sealed the game — earlier in the season, we were the team giving that play up,” Cornia said.  ‘This time, we were the ones taking it. It just shows how far they’ve come.”

The Red Devils will now prepare for the next round of conference games, closing out the regular season with contests at home Thursday against Green River, on the road Saturday, at Star Valley and back home for the season finale against Jackson Friday, Feb. 28.

“We know what’s ahead of us,” Cornia said. “We know how dangerous Green River is, and we know that nothing is a given. This conference is even enough that even if you won the first time, the next time is a brand new 32 minutes where who knows what will happen. I think Green River feels like we snuck away with one over there the first time, so they’ll be ready for us. We know we’re going to get their very best.”