The Evanston High School boys’ basketball team opened the 2024-25 season against three of the Top 5 teams in the WyoPreps preseason rankings, posting a 1-2 record at the Strannigan Tournament in Riverton over the weekend.

The Red Devils opened the tourney Thursday against 4A Southwest rival Star Valley, upsetting the No. 5-ranked Braves 54-45. Evanston followed that with a 67-64 loss to preseason No. 4 Cheyenne East Friday, and gave No. 2-ranked Cheyenne Central all they could handle Saturday in a 48-44 loss to close out the tournament.

“I thought it was — as a program — a really good starting point for us,” said EHS head coach Rob Watsabaugh. “I thought we competed in all of our games, and coming out, we showed what we’ve been working on offensively and defensively throughout the summer and then in practice, playing a little bit better tempo, offensively and defensively. I thought we did a pretty dang good job. We had a couple lapses here and there, but we had a really good starting point for the year, I thought.”

The Red Devils are back on the road this weekend in Sweetwater County for the Flaming Gorge Classic Basketball Tournament. Watsabaugh said this week’s practices would be geared toward correcting what he called some very fixable mistakes in Riverton.

“We have Uintah, Bear Lake and Pinedale,” Watsabaugh said. “Pinedale’s always tough — they played pretty tough against us last year, and they returned a couple of good kids, plus they got some newbies. I think it’ll be a good competition; those are three solid programs that we’ll get to go against, so this week in practice, we’ll focus on some things we didn’t do so well, let’s get better at those, and build upon the things that we did do well.”

Red Devils 54, Star Valley 45

The Red Devils opened play at the Strannigan Tournament Thursday in Riverton against a familiar foe in Star Valley, and for the first time since former Evanston standout Dawson Crofts sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer in 2019-20, the Red Devils had the Braves’ number.

Evanston opened the game on a 14-4 run, and led 31-12 at the break. The Red Devils cooled off a bit in the second half, allowing Star Valley to chip away at the lead, but did enough to keep their rivals at bay for the upset win.

“We were ready to play, for sure,” Watsabaugh said. “I didn’t know if we were quite that ready to play, but the kids came out, great defensive effort, first half we really shut ‘em down, and maybe they missed a couple shots, but I thought our defense affected that. They played with really good tempo, they got out early and up 20 points quite quick, which is what we’ve been working on — just trying to find easy baskets early. And some good execution and well-rounded team  effort to get that win on opening day.”

Ryker Lind shot lights out from behind the arc, sinking four 3-pointers, en route to a team-high 18 points. Brenner Lym followed with 12 points — including a pair of 3-pointers — while Jay Hill and Clayton Cook chipped in six points apiece; Cook led the team in rebounds with nine. Brooks Searle added five points, while Ryker Pace and Jordan Mendez finished with three points and two points, respectively. Mendez led the team in assists, with three.

East 67,  Red Devils 64

Facing their second Top 5-ranked team in as many days, the Red Devils squared off against No. 4 Cheyenne East Friday, looking to carry over the momentum of their upset win against Star Valley the day before.

For three quarters against the Thunderbirds, Evanston did just that, controlling the action against the bigger team, and using their speed to keep East on their heels. A sluggish third quarter proved to be the Red Devils’ undoing, however, allowing East just enough of a window to get back in the game, then hold on for the 67-64 win.

“That slow third quarter kind of hurt us — other than that, I think we were outhustling them, outplaying them, first, second and fourth quarter,” Watsabaugh said. “We gave ourselves a chance to win. In a loss like that, you learn from it and grow. And we had some special situations that we had to execute early, and in our young season, it’s good for our guys to face and learn from those, and what we have to do when it’s a tight game up two, down two, whatever it may be, come out and execute during those times. I think we kind of let that one slip away, but I thought our effort was there. I was pretty proud of our fight.”

Ryker Lind again paced the Red Devils with 20 points — including 4-for-6 from behind the arc — followed by 17 points from Jay Hill — who sank three 3-pointers of his own – and a double-double from Clayton Cook, who netted 13 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. Jordan Mendez had a busy night on the stat sheet, dishing off four assists, two steals and five rebounds, to go along with his eight points. Ryker Pace and Brenner Lym chipped in four points and two points, respectively.

Central 48, Red Devils 44

The Red Devils closed out the Strannigan Tournament against No. 2 Central, battling back from a 36-18 deficit at halftime to hold the Indians to just nine second-half points.

The comeback came up just short in the 48-44 loss, though Watsabaugh said he was proud of the way his team responded to a situation where another team may have called it quits at half.

“We had a choice to make there at halftime — continue to fight, or call it good,” Watsabaugh said. “They came out and fought. We showed the grit to dig down and play some good team defense, and had some shots falling for us, once again, giving ourselves a chance to win, which was great.”

Ryker Lind led the charge with 14 points, followed by Jay Hill with 13 points and Clayton Cook with nine points. Jordan Mendez finished with six points, while Brenner Lym closed out the scoring with two points.