The Evanston High School girls’ basketball team opened its 2024-25 campaign on the road at the Strannigan Tournament in Riverton last weekend, posting a 1-2 record against some strong competition.

The Lady Devils opened the tournament Thursday with a thrilling 39-36 win over 4A Southwest rival Star Valley. Evanston then played No. 1-ranked Cheyenne East Friday, falling 51-24 in a game that was closer than the score might indicate. The Lady Devils then closed out the tournament Saturday against No. 4 Cheyenne Central, falling 60-22.

“You know, we did a lot of good things and a lot of things we gotta grow from, obviously,” said EHS head coach Roy Barker. “We’re just better — we’re better than we were last year, and that’s what I wanted. The girls are playing hard, and I appreciate that, so I think we’re headed in the right direction. Obviously, playing two very good teams — East and Central — hopefully the girls and myself will recognize what we gotta do to close the gap between teams of that caliber.”

The Lady Devils have little time for reflection before hitting the road again this week, this time headed to Sweetwater County for the Flaming Gorge Classic. Evanston will face three tough teams in Bear Lake, Rawlins and Thermopolis.

“This week, we’ll work on just getting better at taking care of the basketball, being more efficient offensively and defensively, getting connected and making sure we’re all on the same page,” Barker said. “Bear Lake is very good — I was looking at their scores, they’re winning a lot of games, they’ve been very successful so far, and Rawlins and Thermopolis I don’t know much about, but I expect we should play well.”

Lady Devils 39,

Star Valley 36

The Lady Devils opened the Strannigan Tournament Thursday in Riverton against 4A Southwest rival Star Valley, and after a bit of a slow start, stormed back in the second quarter to take a 17-16 lead at the break.

The game went back and forth for much of the second half, and with the game tied 35-35 with under a minute to play in regulation, senior captain Kiernynn Simmons banked a shot off the glass to give Evanston a two-point lead at 37-35. A foul put Star Valley’s Cameron Mackey at the line; she hit the first of two freebies but missed the second, cutting the lead to 37-36.

With time running out, Evanston’s Emme Fessler was fouled and hit on one of her two foul shots. Leading 38-36 with 10 seconds to play, it appeared Emma Lonsway was fouled, though the refs called it a jump ball. The possession arrow was in Star Valley’s favor, giving them a final shot to tie the game; Madison Brown grabbed the rebound and was fouled, then SV was assessed a technical. Brown hit one of her free throws, and that proved to be the final point of the game in a 39-36 win.

“I thought we played solid defense, I really did,” Barker said.  “We held them to under 40 points, which was great.We were able to get it inside, take advantage of our size on them and so keep with the game plan and stay with it and compete; it’s just a really good game for our girls to get a win against a team they haven’t beat before.”

Simmons was the leading scorer for the Lady Devils with 10 points; other stats for this game were unavailable at press time. 

“I was really happy the girls were able to compete and beat a team that we would say talentwise, maybe athletically, all that kind of stuff, we’re very comparable with, so that’s what made me excited,” Barker said. “But to get the first win of the year out of the way, the girls get to relax a little bit and not have that hanging over their head; having a win is awesome.”

East 51,

Lady Devils 24

Friday’s contest against top-ranked Cheyenne East was closer than the score would indicate, with the Lady Devils keeping the score within 6-8 points for much of the first half, and heading into the fourth quarter, East led by 10, 30-20.

Evanston ran out of steam after that, allowing the Lady Thunderbirds to run away with the fourth quarter — and the game — 51-24.

“We sat in that zone, and the zone gave East trouble — they weren’t shooting well,” Barker explained. “Going into the fourth quarter, we were only like 3-of-10 from the foul line — we weren’t shooting well from the foul line, which is really interesting. We’d have only been down six or seven points if we could have made 50% of our foul shots. But East comes out in the fourth and hits two 3-pointers — they made plays when they needed to make them, because they were struggling to find the basket, as well. I could have stayed in the zone, and not lost as badly, but we went man, and tried to pressure them. And that hurt us. So that game got away from us. I could have kept it closer, I guess. But I decided to go out and try to get the win, try to be aggressive.”

Scoring was very balanced — Cassie Barker and Emme Fessler led the Lady Devils with five points apiece, followed by four points each from Violet Cook and Kiernynn Simmons. Emma Lonsway and Madison Brown rounded out the scoring with three points each. Barker led the team in rebounds with six, followed by Brown with four; Lonsway led the team in assists, with three.

Central 60,

Lady Devils 22

The Lady Devils closed out the tournament Saturday against Cheyenne Central, and after a slow start, struggled with turnovers and finding an offensive rhythm in a 60-22 loss.

“Central — they’re really good, and we didn’t take care of the basketball,” Barker said. “I think that was one of the things that I saw, thinking about good basketball. I could have done a better job coaching — putting girls in the right spots — and they’ve got to do a better job of being mentally tough and taking care of the basketball a little better, and seeing the openings. Honestly, that really hurt us, not being able to limit our turnovers. It was a great test early to see what we’re able to do.”