Lady Huskies start season strong

Basketball season is officially underway and the Burlington Lady Huskies had a successful start, adding four wins at the Carbon County Classic Tournament in Saratoga and Encampment. 

Up first on Friday was Casper Christian, which is new to the sports scene having added football and basketball teams this year. The Lady Huskies won, 61-8. 

“The girls came out ready to play,” said Coach Cheryl Haslam. “Many of the girls were very nervous before this game, so maybe it was a good one to start the season with. They worked hard but it definitely wasn’t a game that challenged them or pushed them. Hailee Winterholler and Sarah McNiven were able to get open on the inside throughout this game. They made several points in the paint for us.” 

Winterholler led with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Naomi McNiven added 12 points and S. McNiven had 10. 

Up next on Friday was Saratoga “We knew we would have to work a little bit harder this game. It was close at halftime, we were up by six, 24-18,” said Haslam. “The girls had a huge second half and won 63-28, they outscored them 21-4 in the third quarter. This game was a good one for us to practice guarding bigs because they have a few that work the inside really well. Hailee, Dalley (Bassett) and Sarah did a great job guarding the girls in the paint.” 

N. McNiven led the team with 15 points, Paxton Philpott added 12 and Breanne Walker had 11. 

Saturday started early for the Lady Huskies with a game at 9 a.m. against Encampment. “We have never been the best at playing early, especially after a long day before,” said Haslam. “We knew that we needed to try to focus on and shut down their two best players. They have a guard that scored over 20 points in both of their games on Friday and a bigger post on the inside. Naomi did a great job of guarding their guard and we held her to eight points. Hailee, Dalley and Naomi did a good job of guarding their post again and held her to nine points. The girls came out really strong in this one, we outscored them 21-10 in the first quarter. This was exciting to see since we weren’t sure about the morning game. Then we started to make bad passes and traveled A LOT. This led to several turnovers in the secnd quarter and we never quite picked back up the momentum, but they fought through and kept their lead. Sarah did a really good job for us in this game. She had some really good shots inside and crucial rebounds. Hailee had some great assists for her.” S. McNiven led scorers with 16 points and four rebounds. Bassett added 10 points and five rebounds and N. McNiven had 13 steals and eight points and Philpott had nine steals and eight points. 

The last game of the weekend was against Ft. Washakie. “It was not a very pretty or fun game. Ft. Washakie gave up on defense several times and we were headed down the court to offense by ourselves. We won 71-19 and all of our points came from the inside. At halftime, the girls picked one thing to work on during offense and one thing to work on during defense. We focused on boxing out and communication. They did a great job with both.” 

N. McNiven led with 17 points, six rebounds and seven steals. 

Scoring was spread throughout each game, with seven to eight players adding to the scores in all four games. “I was proud of the girls this weekend. It was a good way to start and get some wins under our belt,” said Haslam. 

The Lady Huskies have a full week with Rocky on Tuesday night. They travel to Shoshoni for the Wrangler tournament on Thursday and Friday. 

Casper Christian   2     2    3    1 – 8

Burlington           23   20   12   6 – 61

BURLINGTON – Walker 2-11 0-0 5, McNulty 2-8 0-0 4, S. McNiven 5-7 0-2 10, Philpott 3-5 0-0 6, Haslam 1-1 0-0 3, N. McNiven 5-10 0-0 12, Winterholler 9-11 0-0 18, Bassett 1-4 0-0 3. Totals 28-58 0-2 61. 

3-POINT GOALS – N. McNiven 2, Walker, Haslam, Bassett 1. REBOUNDS – Burlington 26 (Winterholler 11). STEALS – Burlington 19 (Walker 6). ASSISTS – Burlington 12 (Bassett 3). TURNOVERS – Burlington 5. 

Saratoga    10    8   4    6 – 28

Burlington  14  10  21  18 – 63

BURLINGTON – Walker 4-13 1-2 11, McNulty 2-5 0-2 5, S. McNiven 2-4 1-2 5, Philpott 5-11 1-2 12, Haslam 2-4 0-0 5, N. McNiven 6-13 3-4 15, Winterholler 2-8 2-3 6, Bassett 2-12 0-0 4. Totals 25-70 8-15 63. 

3-POINT GOALS – Walker 2, McNulty, Philpott, Haslam 1. REBOUNDS – Burlington 26 (S. McNiven 6, Walker, Bassett 5). STEALS – Burlington 24 (N. McNiven 6, McNulty 5). ASSISTS – Burlington 7. TURNOVERS – Burlington 3. 

Encampment  10  14   7  12 – 43

Burlington       21  10  11  13 – 55 

BURLINGTON – Walker 2-10 0-0 6, S. McNiven 8-12 0-0 16, Philpott 4-12 0-0 8, Haslam 0-3 1-2 1, N. McNiven 3-10 2-2 8, Winterholler 3-5 0-0 6, Bassett 4-9 1-2 10. Totals 24-64 4-6 55. 

3-POINT GOALS – Walker 2, Bassett 1. REBOUNDS – Burlington 28 (Bassett 5, S. McNiven 4). STEALS – Burlington 31 (N. McNiven 13, Philpott 9). ASSISTS – Burlington 9 (Winterholler 3). TURNOVERS – Burlington 3. 

Ft. Washakie   3    8    6    2 – 19

Burlington      19  16  19  17 – 71

BURLINGTON – Walker 3-11 2-2 8, McNulty 3-5 0-0 6, S. McNiven 4-9 3-4 11, Philpott 5-9 1-2 11, Preator 2-4 0-0 4, N. McNiven 8-14 1-1 17, Winterholler 3-6 0-0 6, Bassett 4-9 0-2 8. Totals 32-71 7-11 71. 

REBOUNDS – Burlington 33 (Winterholler, Bassett 7, N. McNiven 6). STEALS – Burlington 18 (N. McNiven 7). ASSISTS – Burlington 9. TURNOVERS – Burlington 5.