CHEYENNE – A relentless defense and abundance of depth propelled third-ranked Cheyenne East to a 67-41 victory over Rock Springs on Saturday afternoon at Storey Gym.
The Lady Thunderbirds (7-1) finished with 13 steals as a team, and also held Rock Springs without a field goal for 10 minutes, 57 seconds across the first and second quarters. East limited the Tigers to 11 made free throws during that stretch. It led 30-15 after Rock Springs senior guard Hannah Shuler made a transition layup with 4:31 remaining in the second quarter.
“I loved our total team effort defensively,” East coach Eric Westling said. “We have some players who can lock down and play some great on-ball defense. I’m proud of their effort.”
East ran a host of players at Rock Springs senior guard Brenli Jenkins, who entered the game averaging 22.3 points per game. That included senior Cheyenna Alvarado, senior Emma Jacobsen and freshman Bradie Schlabs.
“We did a good job of talking, getting close without fouling, keeping our hands off of them and not stabbing at anything,” Alvarado said. “We work hard on being better defenders during practice, and we did a good job of helping each other.”
Schlabs leads Class 4A in steals per game, and was nervous but excited to be among those tasked with defending Jenkins on Saturday.
“I have to guard some great players during practice, so I tried to treat this just like that,” Schlabs said. “(Jenkins) is really good, and we had to work really hard to stick with her and try to get deflections and create steals.
“We had some players in foul trouble, so a lot of us had to go up against her. But we have a lot of really good defenders who are capable of guarding a player like her.”
Jenkins finished with 20 points, but 13 of those came from the free-throw line. Jenkins made nine consecutive shots from the charity stripe during one stretch in the first half.
East’s depth wasn’t only on display defensively. It got 31 points off the bench.
Schlabs finished with 14 points and three steals, while Ashley Marshall added 12 points and eight rebounds.
“We have good depth, and we keep developing,” Westling said. “I am super confident in our second group off the bench. I see what they do in practice every night, and they carry that into games. It’s great to see.”
Sophomore guard Boden Liljedahl scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds for East. Alvarado netted 13 points, eight of which came during the fourth quarter. Jacobsen added nine points, eight rebounds and four steals.
East hosts Laramie at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Storey Gym.
EAST 67, ROCK SPRINGS 41
Rock Springs……..... 6 18 6 11 – 41
Cheyenne East…… 21 16 16 14 – 67
Rock Springs: Shuler 4, Brewster 1, Anderson 6, Cozad 10, B. Jenkins 20, Hamblin 0.
Cheyenne East: R. Jacobsen 0, B. Schlabs 14, E. Jacobsen 9, C. Alvarado 13, White 0, Jardine 0, Mauthe 0, Fonseca 5, Liljedahl 14, A. Marshall 12.
Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at
