Burlington: The home of hardwood royalty
Huskies 61, St. Stephens 48
By Dusty Shryack
Sports Writer
CASPER — Out of the four victories that the Burlington Huskies have earned over the St. Stephens Eagles this year, their latest was undoubtedly the sweetest.
Ammon Howard’s eight-point, one-man show in the opening minutes of the first quarter turned back an early Eagles lead, setting the tone for the rest of the match in Burlington’s 61-48 state title triumph over their bitter conference rival on Saturday.
The Huskies — known for their quick striking fastbreak offense — found themselves in unfamiliar territory early on, allowing St. Stephens to control the opening two minutes of the game. Field goals by Bronson Blackburn, Tevin Brown and Jay Brown gave St. Stephens an early 6-0 advantage.
But Howard — who came into the tournament averaging 3.8 points per game — showed he’d saved his best for last, hitting Burlington’s first three shots including a pair of 3-pointers to knot the game at eight apiece. The last of those, a 3-pointer, ignited a 15-0 Burlington run that finally ended two minutes into the second quarter.
Howard hit a pair of threes in the second quarter, doing all of his 14 points of damage before the break.
“It was the best game of the season for Ammon,” said head coach Matthew Davidson of the senior’s performance. “It was his turn.”
St. Stephens stuck extra defenders in the paint during much of the first half, trying to take away a strong inside game that Burlington used against them in earlier contests. That left Howard plenty of room to shoot which he did with deadly results.
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Lady Huskies 53, Kaycee 50
By Dusty Shryack
Sports Writer
CASPER — Their last win of the season was quite unlike the Burlington Lady Huskies’ previous 24. But after outscoring the Kaycee Lady Bucs 27-17 in the second half, the Lady Huskies claimed a second straight 1A state title, winning 53-50 on Saturday.
But the game came down to the wire, as Kaycee held a 40-39 lead with under two minutes remaining until a Paige Neves freethrow and an Alysha Henderson two-pointer put the Lady Huskies back on top for good.
“We were on the wrong side of the wire for too long, I think,” Burlington coach Jerry Patrick said with a laugh.
It was quite a different team than coach Jerry Patrick would liked to have used in the title game. Already short Alanna Powers, who missed the entire season due to a knee injury and Brecka Carrizales, who tore her ACL in the semifinal game against Cokeville on Friday, team leader Paige Neves sat much of the first half due to early foul trouble.
The result was an early Lady Buc advantage with the team from Kaycee taking a 13-7 lead after the first quarter.
The second quarter provided no relief for the reeling Lady Huskies. After closing the gap to two off of a pair of Sadie Neves freethrows, Kaycee went on a 6-0 run, putting the score at 19-11. The Lady Bucs would take a 23-16 halftime lead.
The Lady Bucs shot at a much higher clip than Burlington, hitting 42 percent of their shots compared to just 19 percent for Burlington.
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