The Evanston High School girls’ basketball team picked the perfect weekend to break out of a five-game slump, notching quality wins over Cody and Riverton with conference play resuming this week.

The Lady Devils welcomed Cody (7-9, 0-3 in conference) Friday, holding off a second-half charge by the Fillies to win by double digits 44-32. Evanston followed that Saturday with perhaps its best defensive performance of the season, holding No. 5 Riverton (12-6, 2-1 in conference) to a season-low 25 points in a 36-25 win.

“We got done what needed to be done against two quality opponents,” said EHS head coach Jeremy Fessler. “We’re playing all around better basketball right now.”

The Lady Devils improved to 7-10 on the season, and look to carry the momentum of a two-game win streak into a full slate of conference games this week, beginning Thursday with a home game against Green River.

Lady Devils 44, Cody 32

Against the visiting Fillies Friday, Evanston jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead, with a trio of Lady Devils — Maggie Moore, Amber Lowe and Taryn Wagstaff — each hitting a shot from behind the arc.

Evanston continued to roll in the second quarter, going on a 12-5 run to push the lead to 10 at 21-11. Cody battled back late in the second to cut the lead to 24-18 at the break; scoring for Evanston was equally distributed among four of its five starters, with Moore, Wagstaff, Lowe and Zocia Nowakowski netting six points apiece.

The second half was much of the same, with the Lady Devils outscoring Cody 20-14 to hold on for the 44-32 win. Asked what the key to the win was for her, Lowe said eliminating the easy transition baskets the Lady Devils had been plagued with the last few games.

“We realized that’s how teams were getting a lot of their points on us and knew that we needed to limit those second chances for us to win,” she said.

Nowakowski and Moore paced the Lady Devils with 12 points apiece, followed by Lowe with eight and Wagstaff with six. Nowakowski, Lowe and Wagstaff were also generous with the ball, dishing off three assists apiece in the contest.

“Maggie [Moore] had 12, which was nice,” Fessler said. “So did Zocia, and Amber keeps hitting shots. They all did some really good things against Cody.”

Nowakowski led the team in rebounds with eight, followed by Stacia Barker with seven. Rebounding has been a struggle of late for the Lady Devils, so to see his team pull down 24 against Cody was something Fessler liked to see.

“We’ve been outrebounded the last five games by our opponents — it’s not even been close,” he explained. “I told the team that’s one thing that had to change. They took it to heart, we outrebounded both of our opponents by double digits. The girls made a concerted effort to get better in that area.”

Nowakowski agreed.

“At the beginning of the season we were getting boards all the time and winning,” she said. “We went out the last two games [Cody and Riverton] knowing that if we wanna win we have to have that aggression again and have heart. We have been focusing a lot on metal toughness.”

Fessler also got solid minutes off the bench from Kambree Brown and Tiana Pierce, who are part of a shortened rotation, now that most of the team is healthy.

“We had that stretch where we were sick, so we started playing a lot of kids,” Fessler said. “We just decided now that we have everybody back and healthy, let’s just shorten our bench, and I think that helped us out by letting those kids get more consistent minutes.”

“Kambree [Brown] and Tiana [Pierce] came in off the bench and did what they needed to do,” he added. “We’ve been focusing on roles the last couple weeks, and they’ve both taken to their role really well to help the team.”

Lady Devils 36,

Riverton 25

Against Riverton Saturday, the Lady Devils continued to play solid defense and dominated on the boards, pulling down 33 rebounds in the 36-25 win.

“What was really nice this weekend is we were actually able to install a game plan that the girls were able to run effectively with,” Fessler said. “It was the first time all year we were able to do that successfully. That and rebounding, when you’re able to do both well, you’re gonna have a good chance to win.”

Evanston got off to a hot start with a 13-4 run in the game’s opening frame. Scoring slowed a bit in the second quarter as Riverton settled in, though the Lady Devils held a commanding 18-7 lead at the break, led by eight points from Taryn Wagstaff.

Riverton got things going offensively in the third quarter, though the Lady Devils matched them almost shot for shot to lead 26-17 heading into the fourth.

“We limited Riverton’s transition points — I decided not to press at all,” Fessler explained. “They have a bunch of players who all handle the ball well, so we made a concerted effort to get back on defense and take that transition game away from them.”

Scoring was back and forth for the game’s final eight minutes, and when the dust settled, Evanston pushed its lead back to 11 to win 36-25.

Riverton has been a team that has lived and died by the 3-pointer this season, and Fessler knew the Lady Devils would have to limit open looks to be successful.

“Riverton shoots tons of threes — you look at their scores from past games, they’ll either score 30 or 60, depending on if they’re hitting their 3-pointers,” he said. “They [Riverton] were 2-of-18 against us, and our defense had a lot to do with that — we hand a hand in their face with almost every shot they took.”

Wagstaff was the lone Lady Devil in double figures, netting 11 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists. But the best part of her game may have been the defense she played against Riverton’s Alexxis Motisi, the third-leading scorer in Class 4A with 15.9 points per game.

“Taryn Wagstaff stepped up — she was hitting shots, and she was on their best player  [Motisi],” Fessler said. “She [Wagstaff] really stuck that girl. She was physical with her, didn’t let her go where she wanted, stayed in front of her. Taryn just played a great game.”

Nowakowski finished with eight points, followed by six points each from Amber Lowe and Stacia Barker.

“Zocia was hitting timely shots,” Fessler said. “She only scored eight points, but it seemed like all eight were at a point where we were struggling to score. Stacia [Barker] was just solid all the way around. Amber [Lowe] didn’t shoot well — her back’s been bothering her a little bit — but she played through it and contributed in other ways.”

Maggie Moore finished with five points, and led the team in rebounds with nine. Barker grabbed eight boards and led the team in steals with two.

“Maggie [Moore] stepped up again — she was so active all weekend with steals, rebounds and shooting the ball,” Fessler said. “She hit a big three at the end of the game for us to put it back to double figures.”

Conference play resumes this week for the Lady Devils, who went 0-3 in the first round of games against their 4A Southwest Quadrant rivals. Two of those games could have gone either way, according to Fessler, and the team is looking forward to getting back in the hunt for a berth in the state tournament next month.

“We really feel like the earlier games against Jackson and Star Valley, we sort of gave away,” he said. “They did what they needed to do to beat us, but we feel like we can compete and beat both of those teams.”

But first up is Green River on Thursday, who beat the Lady Devils handily 49-33 last month. The Lady Wolves are a perfect 3-0 in conference, and with an overall record of 13-4, the team to beat in the 4A Southwest.

“Green River — we didn’t play them very well at all, and that was where this five-game losing streak started,” Fessler said. “We had a game plan against Green River the first time that we didn’t execute, so I’m hoping we can figure that out. Green River has two really good players, so if you take away those players and make the other kids beat you, you have a chance.”

Nowakowski said if the team continues to play the way they did against Cody and Riverton, don’t count them out.

“All our  [remaining] games are absolutely winnable,” she said. “We need to start with intensity and just give all we got when we’re in the game. We have to keep a positive mindset and go into it like strong competitors and work hard all the time.”