By MARLYS GOOD
What do you do when your team has the opponent down 38-1 at halftime? For Coach Jerry Patrick, whose Burlington Lady Huskies went on to beat Shoshoni 61-37 Friday, it was a case of “changing our defense in the second half. We played everybody, all 12 kids got into the game, and everybody played equal time. We backed off.”
The Lady Blue took advantage of the Lady Huskies backing off and hit 8 3-pointers in the second half to keep the game respectable.
“We decided we’d protect the key, not let them score in the key with a rebound or any other way. We let them take the outside shot and wow,” Patrick explained, “without a hand in their face they are pretty good shooters.”
Shoshoni pressed Burlington in the half-court and “didn’t allow us to work on the things we wanted to offensively. We had to attack the press and take it to the basket.”
Lyndsey Wardell and Paige Neves were in double figures with 21 and 16 points, respectively.
“I thought we played very well the first half — got up and down the floor. Twelve girls played and we had 18 assists. Our girls can do some good things out there. We showed up and played hard.”
The Lady Huskies have a busy weekend ahead. With Fort Washakie unable to field a team this year, Patrick said they had picked up a game with Big Horn Thursday (today) to fill the slot.
What a game that should be with states top-ranked 2A school taking on the state’s top-ranked 1A school — both undefeated this year. “It’s always fun when two undefeated teams come together,” Patrick said. “We could get skinned over there - but that’s all right. We just want to get down and see what we can make work.”
Patrick doesn’t intend to shake things up in the game plan. “All year long we have been making things happen defensively, so we’ll go with what has been successful — and be ready to make some changes.” For sure, “We’ll have to show up and play our game.”
Burlington hosts the Lady Pioneers in a varsity-only game at 5:30 Friday, and Saturday travel to St. Stephens to play at 3 and 5:30. Both are conference games.
Looking at Ten Sleep, Patrick said they are a young team, few in numbers, but with a very good sophomore point guard. “We can’t relax; you can’t go into any game thinking it’s won. You have to go out and win it yourself.”
Burlington 61, Shoshoni 37
Burlington: 26 12 16 7 - 61
Shoshoni: 1 0 19 15 - 37
BURLINGTON: Lyndsey Wardell 21, Paige Neves 16, Brecka Carrizales 8, Esmeralda Zubia 4, Jessica Stanworth 4, Camilla Jones 3, Julie Davidson 2, Alysha Henderson 2, Janet Davidson 1. FG: 29-53. 3-POINTERS: 1-3 (Wardell). FT: 2-10. REBOUNDS: 22 (Neves 6). ASSISTS: 18 (Neves 4, Carrizales 4, Zubia 4). STEALS: 24 (Wardell 5, Carrizales 5). TURNOVERS: 24. FOULS: 11.