Huskies win final tune-ups before regional tournament
By NATHAN OSTER
The Burlington Huskies will head to Lander and the Class 1A West Regional as one of the favorites after putting the finishing touches on a 19-2 regular season with wins over Ten Sleep and Riverside last week.
Playing without injured starter Eric McNiven, the Huskies rolled over the Pioneers 64-37 Friday and were simply too much for their county rivals from Riverside in a 65-21 rout Saturday in Basin.
“Ten Sleep played us a lot better over there than they did here,” said Coach Matt Davidson. “So in that sense, it was a better game for us.”
It wasn’t Burlington’s sharpest performance of the season, as the Huskies connected on just 32 percent of their field goal attempts and had 24 turnovers. But Davidson was able to go deep into his bench, giving every player on the roster considerable court time.
Anson George shined in a reserve role, coming off the bench to score 13 points in “his best game of the season,” according to Davidson. George also had eight boards for the Huskies.
Tim Davidson led the Huskies with 18 points.
“We outsized them, so we tried to take advantage of that,” Davidson said.
The Riverside game was similar to the first matchup of the season between the two teams, in that it was dominated by the Huskies.
“Everyone got to play a lot of minutes,” he said.
Spencer Jones led Burlington with 14 while Sam Davidson chipped in 12 to go along with five rebounds.
Regional tournament
The Huskies will be the top seed from the Northwest when the regional tournament begins today (Thursday, Feb. 25) in Lander. With that position, they’ll open with a 5:20 p.m. game against Encampment.
Davidson said he doesn’t know much about any of the teams from the Southwest.
Encampment finished 1-7 in conference play and 5-18 overall.
If the Huskies are able to win that, they’d advance to the semifinals for a matchup against the winner of the Hanna-Elk Mountain versus Ten Sleep contest. Hanna, the No. 2 team from the Southwest, is 16-4 and went 5-3 in the conference.
“They’ve been ranked most of the year,” Davidson said of the Miners. “I think it will be a good game between them and Ten Sleep.”
The other side of the bracket could feature a semifinal matchup between Little Snake River and St. Stephens, both of which have been ranked among the top three 1A teams in the state during the regular season.
“Looking at the rankings, we’ll have four of the five top teams at our regional,” Davidson said.
Davidson said McNiven, who on Monday practiced for the first time since the injury, is questionable for this weekend, although he noted, “Eric is such a competitor, it would be really hard for him to have to sit.”
The coach added that he is happy with the way his team is playing, and that the kids “are excited and ready to take it to the tournament level” in Lander.
“Defense has been one of our strengths, and being able to contain the other teams and dictate tempo are going to be real keys for us,” Davidson said. “When we’ve done that, we’ve been very successful. The two games we lost, we didn’t do a good job of that.
“And we really need to limit the number of turnovers we have.”
Burlington 64, Ten Sleep 37
BURLINGTON — Sam Davidson 7, Shawn Christiansen 7, Tim Davidson 18, Porter Jones 4, Ammon Howard 5, Anson George 13, Daniel Davidson 4, Kurt McIntosh 3, Spencer Jones 3. Totals 25-77 11-25 64.
3-POINT GOALS — Christiansen, Howard, George. REBOUNDS — Burlington 51 (S. Davidson 10). STEALS — Burlington 14 (S. Davidson, Christiansen, D. Davidson 3). ASSISTS —Burlington 3. TURNOVERS — Burlington 24.
Burlington 65, Riverside 21
BURLINGTON — S. Davidson 12, Christiansen 5, T. Davidson 6, Jones 4, Howard 4, George 7, D. Davidson 6, McIntosh 2, S. Jones 14, Landon Tolman 5. Totals 27-58 7-7 65.
3-POINT GOALS — Christiansen, Jones 2, George. REBOUNDS — Burlington 29 (T. Davidson 5). STEALS — Burlington 15 (S. Davidson 5). ASSISTS — Burlington 8 (S. Davidson, T. Davidson, P. Jones 2). TURNOVERS — Burlington 14.