The last time the Evanston High School boys’ basketball team qualified for the 4A State Basketball Tournament, Lex Cornia was the head coach, Mason Ellingford and Dawson Crofts were lighting up …
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The last time the Evanston High School boys’ basketball team qualified for the 4A State Basketball Tournament, Lex Cornia was the head coach, Mason Ellingford and Dawson Crofts were lighting up the box scores and the players on this year’s Red Devils roster were still roaming the halls in middle school.
While that 2019-20 team had their State Tournament dreams dashed thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Evanston squad will have the opportunity to realize theirs, thanks to a strong weekend at the 4A West Regional Tournament over the weekend in Green River.
With a 51-38 win over Kelly Walsh and a thrilling 49-38 win over Rock Springs, the Red Devils are headed to State for the first time in the Rob Watsabaugh era, earning the No. 4-seed out of the West.
“I’m very excited – the team is happy, we accomplished one of our goals from before the start of the season,” Watsabaugh said. “We’re excited to head to Casper, have another week of practice and another chance to compete.”
Asked for his thoughts on the Regional Tournament overall, Watsabaugh said it was very competitive, with all of the teams pretty evenly matched.
“I think any game at that tournament could have gone in any direction,” he said. “We competed well in our first game against Riverton, just came up a little short. I thought our win against Kelly Walsh was one of our better games of the year, holding them to 38 points. Turning back around the next morning and holding Rock Springs to that same number – two great defensive efforts from our boys. They wanted it, and they played very well together. It was a great team effort, in both of those wins.”
Once the tournament was over and the players were back on the bus, Watsabaugh said it finally sunk in that the team was headed back to State.
“The kids were thrilled to be able to extend their season, and continue to grow as a team,” Watsabaugh said. “We still have yet to play our best basketball, offensively, or defensively – we’ve come close, so we’ll keep chasing that. If we can do it for four quarters, I really like our chances. We’re not done yet.”
The Red Devils have a tough draw in top-seeded Laramie (20-3) in Thursday’s opener at Casper College, but Watsabaugh said the team is looking forward to the challenge.
“We’ve evolved as a team since we first played Laramie in Week 2,” he said. “We’ve come a long way, but they have, as well. We’ll have to focus in on their shooting – they score very well, so we need to be sound defensively. They have four kids that score in double figures, so defense is going to be huge. On offense, I think we can get the looks that we want, we just have to be poised – not let the moment be too big for us.”
Riverton 48,
Red Devils 40
The Red Devils opened the tournament Thursday against Riverton, and the game was tight from the start, with the Wolverines holding a 25-23 lead at the break.
Evanston took the lead in the third quarter 32-31, but fell apart in the fourth, allowing the Wolverines to escape with the 48-40 win.
“We tried to contain [Riverton guard] Parker Paxton, and I thought we did a pretty good job of it – he got to the line a little too often, got some easy points from us fouling him,” Watsabaugh said. “Darrick DeVries also had a good game for them. We didn’t have a ton of turnovers – we just struggled a little to score the basketball. They had us scouted pretty well, and hats off to them for winning that one. I’m proud of my guys for fighting and sticking to it, the entire game.”
Scoring for the Red Devils was fairly balanced, led by nine points from Kai Barker, who just missed a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds. Clayton Cook followed with eight points – to go along with five rebounds and two steals – while Ryker Lind finished with seven points. Drew Barker hit a pair of 3-pointers for his six points, while Luke Robinette and Jay Hill chipped in three points apiece. Cohen Morrow rounded out the scoring with a point.
Red Devils 51,
Kelly Walsh 38
Facing elimination Friday against Kelly Walsh, the Red Devils started fast, and didn’t look back, sending the Trojans back to Casper and ruining their State hopes with a 51-38 win.
“Kelly Walsh turned us over 21 times the first time we played them, so that was a point of emphasis this time around – handling their pressure,” Watsabaugh said. “They tried to half-court trap us, and we made some adjustments. Our guys took advantage of beating them on the back side, and we played well as a team – we shared the basketball, and we cut our turnovers in half. That was big for us, as was our play on defense.”
Jordan Mendez led the charge for the Red Devils with 13 points, to go along with five rebounds and three assists. Clayton Cook finished with 11 points, while Jay Hill and Kai Barker added seven points apiece; Barker also led the team with eight rebounds. Ryker Lind and Cohen Morrow finished with six points and five points, respectively; Luke Robinette rounded out the scoring with two points.
Red Devils 49,
Rock Springs 41
Saturday’s game against top-seeded Rock Springs would decide the final team out of the West to head to State, and as is usually the case when these two teams meet, it didn’t disappoint.
The Red Devils got off to a sluggish start, spotting Rock Springs a 6-0 lead before scoring their first points of the contest. Evanston came back to pull within two at 10-8 at the end of the quarter, and the Tigers still held a two-point lead at the break, 21-19.
The Red Devils continued to play tough in the third, and held a slim 30-29 lead at the start of the final frame. Rock Springs’ aggressive play resulted in plenty of trips to the line for Evanston, with Jordan Mendez and Drew Barker hitting some big foul shots to put the game away late, 49-41.
“That was a very intense game – a lot of emotion, from both teams,” Watsabaugh said. “I think we came out a little nervous – it took us four minutes to score. But once we played through those jitters, of both teams feeling each other out, we kept it close. We may not have scored, but we didn’t let them score, either. Our defense definitely kept us in it.”
Unofficial stats had Clayton Cook pacing the Red Devils with 15 points, followed by Kai Barker with 12 points and Jay Hill with eight points. Jordan Mendez finished with seven points, while Cohen Morrow and Drew Barker chipped in four points and three points, respectively.
“Down the stretch, Rock Springs was playing aggressive, and we were able to handle their pressure,” Watsabaugh said. “They were fouling us, and we ended up knocking down some key free throws, while continuing to get stops.”
Riverton 59,
Red Devils 50
Saturday afternoon’s third-place game against Riverton was a quick turnaround for the Red Devils, who – though fatigued and emotionally drained from the win against Rock Springs less than two hours earlier – still made it a game against the Wolverines in a 59-50 loss.
“We came out slow in that game – we were doing some things that we don’t normally do defensively,” Watsabaugh said. “We missed multiple charges, that kind of thing. The guys were fatigued, but we didn’t give up – we continued to fight. We had a chance, Riverton just played a little bit better, a little more disciplined than us to come away with the win.”
Unofficial stats had Jordan Mendez leading a trio of Red Devils in double figures with 13 points; Clayton Cook and Kai Barker finished with 12 points and 10 points, respectively. Luke Robinette added six points, while Cohen Morrow chipped in four points.
