By MARLYS GOOD
Conference, regional and state championships. Three goals set by the Burlington Lady Huskies at the start of the 2009-2010 season — and with a 43-40 victory over Kaycee in the 1A title game Saturday at the Casper Events Center — mission accomplished.
“We found a way to win. That’s what it came down to,” said Coach Jerry Patrick of the come-from-behind win over the Lady Bucs in the championship game.
Kaycee took it right to Burlington at the tip-off Saturday, shooting their way to a 13-7 first-quarter advantage, and holding a 23-16 lead at halftime. The Lady Huskies just looked out of synch. “With Brecka and Janet out and Paige (Neves) out half of the time, we stayed in the battle. Other kids stepped it up. Esmeralda (Zubia) was just great, Lyndsey (Wardell) played very well and very hard; she was spent after the Cokeville game, and Alysha (Henderson) came through for us. She had two big rebounds and scored the basket that put us ahead.”
After getting whistled for three fouls in the first two quarters, Neves went on to finish the game with just those three fouls, and her leadership was needed on the court. Although she had to “back-off” on defense, offensively she played like she was on a mission, and with everything on the line, went 6-6 from the charity stripe (overall she was 7-12).
“We had to play so hard against Cokeville (in the semifinal game), I can’t say enough about our players. We were spent after that game, and the fact that we picked up another injury, although things affect you emotionally,” Patrick explained of his team’s sub-par performance.
The Lady Huskies made their way to the championship with an easy first round win over Upton 49-22, but then had to “play their hearts out” to get by Cokeville, 45-38 in the semifinals Friday.
“It was a very intense game. Cokeville played great defense. They double-teamed Paige inside and basically took her out of the game,” Patrick said.
Wardell ignited the offense with 18 points in 8-10 shooting from the field, which included a 3-pointer and Neves had 15 boards to key the defense. But for the Lady Huskies, it has always been about “team” and it took nine players, playing hard for Burlington to win.
But the win was costly when senior sparkplug Brecka Carrizales went down with a knee injury. That injury came on the heels of an injury prior to regionals to sophomore Janet Davidson, first one off the bench for the Lady Huskies. Add the loss of Davidson and Carrizales to the loss of Alanna Powers, 2009 All-Conference selection and described as a “warrior” by Patrick at the get-go of the season.
“We had talked about what it takes to be state champions, what we were going to do when other teams played hard and shot well. How we could handle that — and we had talked about how we were going to handle adversity,” Patrick said.
One key to winning it all was “keeping Paige in the game — and that didn‘t happen. With her out, and Brecka out, we didn’t have the fast break anymore and that is a big part of our offense. It came down to half-court basketball.
“We had a lot of kids out there having to be big players, they weren’t used to that, then you put them into a state championship game with all that pressure,” Patrick paused, thinking of all his younger players who stepped it up.
“Jessie (Flores) played with confidence and played hard. We were pleased to see that. Sadie Neves played hard for us — had eight rebounds (in semifinals). Those rebounds are big in tight games,” he said.
Patrick said the chess match included “trying to keep good match-ups on defense. Kaycee had a point guard (Nancy Garcia, an All-State selection) who is very quick. Esmeralda (Zubia) did an excellent job on her — kept her contained. It (state title) comes down to making plays. Kaycee did that early. The Garcia girl shot real well, even with a hand in her face; we couldn’t do much more. They shot 42 percent from the field in the first half and we shot 19 percent.”
Patrick has always emphasized the importance of playing tough, aggressive defense, but laughed as he admitted, “ basketball comes down to making baskets.”
A second consecutive state title, is big, but Patrick said as a whole, the state tournament was “disappointing. We had played so well all year, then all of a sudden our game is not there anymore — too many injuries, foul problems. We were just not in our game. But it was pleasing to come from behind and win the championship game, playing a team that was playing far beyond what they have played. Credit their coach for that.”
Burlington 49, Upton 22
Burlington: Julie Davidson 2, Lyndsey Wardell 12, Jessica Stanworth, 2, Alysha Henderson 6, Jessie Flores 2, Brecka Carrizales 6, Paige Neves 13, Sadie Neves 4. FG: 20-53. 3-POINTERS: 4-14 (Wardell 2, Carrizales 2). FT: 5-10. REBOUNDS: 39 (S. Neves 8, P. Neves 4). ASSISTS: 11 (Carrizales 3). STEALS: 18 (Carrizales 4, Esmeralda Zubia 4). TO: 17. FOULS: 12.
Burlington: 23 7 15 4 - 49
Upton: 4 6 6 6 - 22
Burlington 45, Cokeville 38
Burlington: Zubia, 6, Wardell 18, Henderson 2, Flores 2, Carrizales 8, Camilla Jones 1, P. Neves 7, S. Neves 1). FG: 17-42. 3-POINTERS: 2-5 (Wardell, Carrizales). FT: 9-17. REBOUNDS: 37 (P. Neves 15, S. Neves 7). ASSISTS: 6 (Wardell 2). STEALS: 15 (Zubia 6, Wardell 4, Carrizales 3). TO: 28. FOULS: 19.
Burlington: 10 12 11 12 - 45
Cokeville: 11 6 11 10 - 38
Burlington 43, Kaycee 40
Burlington: Zubia 2, Wardell 17, Henderson 4, P. Neves 15, S. Neves 5. FG: 11-38. 3-POINTERS: 2-11. 3-POINTERS: (Wardell 2). FT: 15-25. REBOUNDS: 50 (Henderson 10, P. Neves 10, Wardell 9, S. Neves 7). ASSISTS: 4. STEALS: 9 (Henderson 3). TO: 22. FOULS: 15.
Burlington: 7 9 11 16 - 43
Kaycee: 13 10 7 10 - 40