Huskies enter break with 6-2 record

Burlington hosted Rocky in its first home game of the season and the intense, back-and-forth battle ended with the Huskies up 54-47. 

“What an exciting game!” said Coach Dale Cook. “We had a lot of kids that really stepped up and played very well. I thought across the board, we had the kind of effort that it takes to win games like that. We feel fortunate to have won that game against a quality program like Rocky’s and with both Cooper Winland and Mason Moss each having 17 points.”

Bitner Philpott led all scorers with 18 points. On the Huskies’ side, Chase Bassett followed with nine points while eight other Huskies got in the scorebook. “One of the real keys in the game, on the offensive side of things, was that we took care of the basketball,” said Cook. “We only turned over the ball five times, which for us is a great stat; we usually have many more. We had 19 offensive rebounds compared to their nine. 

“Defense was a real key in the game as well. We forced 21 turnovers with nine of them being steals, many of them leading to transition baskets. Rebounding was a team effort. We had six kids get five or more rebounds. M. James McNiven and Taft Winters both had a great game as our post players. Our perimeter defense was relentless, led by Paul McNiven. Kole Walker, Chase Bassett, Kellen Winters and Bitner Philpott all played outstanding defense, forcing turnovers and just making it hard for Rocky to do what they wanted to do. 

“We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well from the 3-point line, but Cole Gotfredson hit one right before half-time that I thought really turned the momentum of the game for us.” 

The Huskies headed to Shoshoni on Thursday and faced 3A Lyman and lost 53-40. “Lyman was a really aggressive defensive team and we had a hard time adjusting to their speed and pressure,” said Cook. 

Top scorer for the Huskies was K. Winters with 13 points, followed by T. Winters with 11. M.J. McNiven had 12 rebounds. “Comparative stats were essentially the same for both teams except for the shooting percentage. We shot 31% from the field and they were 42%,” said Cook. “It was a tough loss for us. Frustrating for sure, but these are the kind of games we need to learn from and get better.” 

Farson was up next for the Huskies and Burlington won, 70-33. Four Huskies were in double figures with M.J. McNiven leading with 13 points, T. Winters with 12, James W. McNiven with 11 and Bitner Philpott with 10. Bassett led rebounds with five. “We turned the ball over 11 times compared to their 28. This was a good game for us. All 11 players got time on the court and did well.” 

The last game for Burlington was versus Cokeville, winning 70-46. Philpott led all scorers with 26, followed by T. Winters with 14 and M.J. McNiven with 12. The Huskies went 47% from the field and 87% from the free throw line and Cokeville at 13% from the field and 73% from the line.  Burlington outrebounded Cokeville 41-16. M.J. McNiven pulled down 11 boards and K. Winters had eight. “This was a good win for us. A lot of good things happened once we got going. We are getting a lot of help from our underclassmen. They are really solid and add a lot of energy to our basketball team,” said Cook. 

The Huskies will be on break until Jan. 9th when they host Meeteetse at home, with varsity tip off at 6:30 and two quarters of the JV at 8 p.m. They will also host Dubois on Saturday, tipping at 1:30 p.m.