CHEYENNE – A ton of energy out of the gate set the tone for the Cheyenne East girls Friday night.
The No. 3-ranked Lady Thunderbirds were aggressive on both ends of the court early on and pulled away with a 58-33 victory over cross-town rival Cheyenne Central.
“It’s a rivalry game and we respect our opponent and in a rivalry week, I was pleased with our practice this week,” East coach Eric Westling said. “Our kids just came out and locked in (Friday night).”
The game started with three lead changes and three ties through the first couple minutes before East opened things up by going on a 10-1 run.
Bradie Schlabs found Elysiana Fonseca for a finish with just over 3 minutes to play in the first quarter to give East a 12-6 lead. Schlabs got a steal and found Cheyenna Alvarado down the court for another bucket nearly a minute later and Madisyn Baillie finished for Central to stymie the T-Birds’ momentum just seconds before the end of the period.
Fifth-ranked Central (7-3 overall, 1-1 Class 4A Southeast Quadrant) cut the deficit to five with 6 minutes, 4 seconds to play in the second quarter after Baylee Delbridge found Kaiya Brant for a bucket. However, that was the closest the game got for the remainder of the contest, and East carried a 27-19 lead into the break.
“We had an off night, we didn’t shoot the ball very well,” Central coach Glen Kirkbride said. “But that isn’t to take any credit away from (East), they played well, they had a great game plan and they came after us.”
Boden Liljedahl only had four first half points for East, but came out for the second half and got into a rhythm. The sophomore hit three 3-pointers within the first 4 minutes of the half and East held a 38-21 lead at that point.
“(That third quarter) I was just getting fired up and coming off the bench and not wanting to go back on there,” Liljedahl said. “I had to have that killer mindset to just score for the team.”
The T-Birds (7-3, 2-0) built on that momentum and held Central to only four third quarter points while East ran away with the game. The third quarter energy mirrored the energy that the T-Birds came out with at the start of the contest.
“Those cross-town rivalry games its just who wants it more and East wanted it more,” Central senior Kelsey Basart said. “Every time they went on a run we put our heads down and we couldn’t do that.”
Liljedahl finished with a game-high 14 points. Alvarado added 13 for East. Schlabs added nine points, four rebounds and four assists. Delbridge had 11 for the Indians.
It was a fairly balanced offensive game for East as they were able to move the ball around and find open shots.
“The selflessness of this group is fun to watch,” Westling said. “Its the way you want kids to play basketball and (Friday night) was a good example of them sharing the ball really well and finding each other in spots and I was proud to see that.”
EAST 58, CENTRAL 33
Cheyenne East…………………… 16 11 16 15 – 58
Cheyenne Central…………………. 9 10 4 10 – 33
Cheyenne East: R. Jacobsen 4, E. Jacobsen 2, C. Alvarado 13, Jardine 6, Liljedahl 14, B. Schlabs 9, Fonseca 3, Marshall 7, Kaufman 0, White 0.
Cheyenne Central: C. Fraley 3, Basart 4, Cowley 6, Brant 2, Delbridge 11, Baillie 4, Gerig 2, Allen 1, Mirich 0, Tempel 0.
Robert Munoz is a writer for WyoSports. He can be reached at rmunoz@wyosports.net. Follow him on Twitter @rmunoz307.
