Lady Huskies get first loss of the season against Rocky

The Lady Huskies lost their game against district rival Rocky Mountain on Tuesday, Dec. 17.  

“We didn’t get the outcome that we wanted, but after watching some of the film, it wasn’t as ‘bad’ as I initially thought,” said Coach Cheryl Haslam, whose team fell 54-41. “In looking at our stats, we were fairly even in everything except for our shooting percentages. We shot 25 percent to their 44 percent.” 

Burlington led for about half of the first quarter, but the Lady Grizzlies put up a tough fight and led 17-25 at half. “We knew going into this that we would have to guard their posts well,” said Haslam. “They do a great job of posting up and getting inside shots. Once their posts get the ball, they make good moves that usually convert to points. When we came out after half, they went on a run that we didn’t answer and couldn’t recover from.” 

The Lady Huskies gained some momentum in the fourth quarter. With a minute and 40 seconds on the clock, Burlington was down by 20 points. Breanne Walker made a 3, Eve McNulty stole the ball, got fouled and made a free throw. With 26 seconds left, Burlington got another 3 from Walker, Paxton Philpott got a steal, was fouled and made a free throw and with just seconds, Walker stole the ball one more time, passed it off to Philpott who added one more bucket at the buzzer that at cut the Grizzlies lead. 

 “The girls fought hard through the end of the game,” said Haslam. “They pressured Rocky in the fourth quarter and we were able to get some great steals and convert them to points. We just couldn’t make up for the hole we dug in the third quarter. When we see the faster-paced teams, we tend to go faster than we need to and that results in turnovers. We haven’t had a game of this pace yet and it was a shock to the girls’ systems after last weekend. But, these are good games for us to have. It’s better to have a tough game you have to work for, than not being pressured at all.”

Philpott led the team with 15 points, seven steals and three assists. Walker had 10 points. Naomi McNiven had nine rebounds and eight points and Sarah McNiven had eight rebounds and five points. 

The results of the Huskies games this past weekend were unavailable due to the newspaper’s early holiday deadlines and will be presented in its Jan. 2, 2025, issue.

Rocky 12  13   16  13 – 54

Burlington   9    8    8   16 – 41 

BURLINGTON – Walker 3-10 2-2 10, McNulty 0-1 1-2 1, S. McNiven 1-5 3-4 5, Philpott 5-20 4-9 15, N. McNiven 4-10 0-2 8, Bassett 1-6 0-0 2. Totals 14-38 10-19 41. 

3-POINT GOALS – Walker 2.

REBOUNDS – Burlington 30 (N. McNiven 9, S. McNiven 8).

STEALS – Burlington 13 (Philpott 7).

ASSISTS – Burlington 7 (Philpott 3).

TURNOVERS – Burlington 22.