CHEYENNE – Although it didn’t play its best basketball over the weekend, the Cheyenne East boys basketball team is still pulling out wins.
In Saturday afternoon’s contest against Evanston, the No. 3-ranked Thunderbirds skimmed past the Red Devils in a 54-46 victory at Storey Gym.
“We went through some aches and pains with some of our youth,” East coach Rusty Horsley said. “And we didn’t put it all together, and when that happens, you get a sloppy game.”
Ranked as the most potent offense in Class 4A, East scored 21 points less than its average (75.5) in the win.
Evanston was able to limit what the T-Birds do best and took away their ability to get out in transition and score.
The game plan caused some issues for East.
“We just need to do a better job of sticking to our game, and Evanston forced us out of our game a little bit,” Horsley said.
The T-Birds’ defense clamped down and did what it needed to do to secure the win. In the first half of the contest, only two Evanston players had scored a bucket until Tanner Newsome got a shot to fall with just under two minutes remaining in the first half.
Graedyn Buell followed up the bucket with a pair of 3-pointers, and East carried a 30-21 lead into the break.
Evanston went on an 8-0 run to open the third period, cutting its deficit to 30-29 before Buell managed to finish at the rim with five minutes to play in the quarter.
East’s defense locked down for the rest of the period. Gavin Goff snagged a steal and found Garet Schlabs for the finish with 15 seconds to play in the third period, which gave the T-Birds an 11-point cushion heading into the final frame.
“We have some grit, and we’re tough,” East sophomore Colter McAnelly said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to win, even … if shots aren’t falling, we’ll get the ball in the hoop somehow, and we’ll still get stops on defense.”
East (6-0) kept its cushion throughout the remainder of the game and had an answer for every type of bucket Evanston made.
Buell finished with a game high 22 points and added five boards. McAnelly added six points and 10 rebounds, and Jake Rayl chipped in with 13 points.
Burke Thomas led Evanston with 14 points. Braxton Lind netted 12 for the Red Devils.
Even though they’re undefeated, the T-Birds know they need to get back to their brand of basketball. Horsley said the team had a tough week of practice last week. McAnelly confirmed that, but said the team will be back in its groove sooner, rather than later.
“This next week will be different,” McAnelly said. “It’ll be another week for us to play and another week for us to get back to it.”
EAST 54, EVANSTON 46
Evanston……............6 15 12 13 – 46
Cheyenne East……14 16 14 10 – 54
Evanston: Mitchell 6, Zermeno 2, Bowen 6, Thomas 14, Lind 12, Wiedrich 2, Newome 4, Cornia 0.
Cheyenne East: McAnelly 6, Rayl 13, Buell 22, Codner 5, Pafford 2, Goff 2, Schlabs 2, Jolley 2, Bush 0
Robert Munoz is a writer for WyoSports. He can be reached at rmunoz@wyosports.net. Follow him on Twitter @rmuno307.
