Huskies beat Dubois on Senior Night

by Stephanie Tolman
The Huskies hosted Dubois on Saturday for Senior Night and the final home game of the season. “I thought we played ‘our game’ and handled Dubois well,” said Coach Kirby Winland. “The first time we played the Rams was in Dubois and it was frustrating for us as a team because we knew we could control a game so much better than we did.”
In the previous game, the Huskies won by only three points, but took control of their home game and headed into halftime with a 39-20 lead. “It seemed like we only had one gear defensively and for a while in the third quarter, we got a little aggressive and they made us pay, cutting our lead to 12 points,” said Winland. The Huskies picked up speed and held Dubois to just eight points in the fourth quarter to win 74-41.
Scoring was balanced with
Casey McNiven contributing nine points, Toby McNulty, Joe Bassett, Weston Gotfredson and Howard McNiven each adding eight and Jordan Michaels, Rykael Andrew and Bruce McNiven putting up seven each. Michaels also had six rebounds, three steals and six assists.
Burlington has five seniors this year: Casey McNiven, Jordan Michaels, Toby McNulty, Joseph Stanworth and Mickey Maroni.  Here’s what Winland had to say when asked about their contributions:
“Mickey has down a good job this year filling the manager role for us as well as taking stats on the bench. All year, whenever we go into halftime, he asks me if there are any stats I want to see to help make adjustments. Along with his managerial skills, he always brings a positive energy to the team; no matter how far the bus ride is he makes sure we always have energy when we get off the bus.
“Joseph has worked so hard this year in practice and staying after, to work himself into a position where we can trust him to go out and provide some pretty solid varsity minutes. Joseph is another example of great positivity. He sprained his ankle pretty bad the week of our Ten Sleep game but fought through the pain of icing and rehab to get back to where he could play in really an impressive turnaround time.
“Toby McNulty has stepped up and filled his role on the team this year. At the start of the year, we had a conversation, Toby and myself, in which I explained to him how much we believed he  could impact the game and our team. Toby has done a great job at stepping up and giving us great minutes this year. Toby is also a very fast learner; it’s amazing to me how you can explain something to him in practice and he can implement it right away. That’s a skill that will take him far in life; without a doubt in my mind he could do something really special after high school.
“Casey McNiven has been a great senior leader all year, he has done a great job explaining the game to our players and team at certain points throughout practice. Casey has great basketball IQ and will always be a threat anywhere you ask him to play on the floor. Unfortunately, I think Casey is the only face that some officials remember from last year because he has had a terrible time this year just being a magnet for officials to key on. Regardless, he has stayed positive and we have worked together on how to play through that challenge. Casey is a great competitor and even better man, always keeping his friends close.
“Jordan Michaels is having a fantastic senior year on the court as both a player and leader. Jordan has really stepped into his starting point guard role this year and has done a great job being a ‘floor general.’ Whether we need a bucket or a stop on defense, Jordan gets it done. It’s been really fun to see the success Jordan experienced in football radiate into basketball in regards to his confidence. Seems like he knows he can be a cold-blooded assassin when he wants to be. Our seniors are a great bunch of boys.”
The Huskies will face Greybull on Thursday, with JV playing at 4 and the varsity at 7 p.m. and will head to Riverside on Saturday with JV playing again at 4 and varsity at 7.

Dubois       11    9  13    8 — 41
Burlington  19  20  13  22 — 74
BURLINGTON — C. McNiven 4-8 0-0 9, McNulty 3-7 0-2 8, Bassett 4-7 0-3 8, Gotfredson 4-8 0-0 8, H. McNiven 4-6 0-0 8, Michaels 3-8 0-0 7, Andrew 3-5 1-2 7, B. McNiven 2-2 2-2 7, Casey 3-3 0-0 6, Perez 1-4 0-2 2, Stanworth 1-2 0-2 2, P. McNiven 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 33-64 3-13 74.
3-POINT GOALS — McNulty 2, C. McNiven, Michaels, B. McNiven 1. REBOUNDS — Burlington 34 (Michaels, Andrew 6). STEALS — Burlington 18 (H. McNiven, Michaels, Casey 3).  ASSISTS — Burlington 15 (Michaels 6, Casey 5). TURNOVERS — Burlington 23.