Lady Huskies hit road bumps at Big Horn Classic

The Big Horn Basin Hoops Classic is always a competitive tournament and this year was no exception as the Lady Huskies joined eight other 2A and 3A teams from around the Basin. Burlington was the only 1A team there and felt the pressure from the bigger schools. 

“It wasn’t the weekend we were expecting, but I’m hoping that we will learn from the experience and go up from here. We need tough games like this,” said Coach Cheryl Haslam. “At times, the girls played so well and worked together, and then at others, they would quit mentally and physically. There were some great things that happened over the weekend and some things that we will be working on in the upcoming weeks.” 

The Lady Huskies won their first game against Thermopolis, 62-37. “The girls played so well together. They worked hard on defense and ran our offenses well throughout the whole game. Thermopolis is a pretty physical team and we don’t seem to handle that very well, but this time the girls did an excellent job with the pressure and came out on top.” 

Burlington dominated the boards, grabbing 24 offensive rebounds and 32 defensive rebounds compared to the Bobcats’ eight offensive and 19 defensive. “That made a huge impact on the game. This was really great to see because it’s one of our team goals throughout the season,” said Haslam. “I was very proud of the girls after this game and the way that they played together. Everyone that went into the game was able to contribute through rebounding, scoring and defense.”

Paxton Philpott led the team with 13 points, six steals and five assists. Sarah McNiven had 11 points and 19 rebounds, Naomi McNiven also had 11 points, nine rebounds and six steals and Dalley Basset had eight points and 10 rebounds. 

Powell was up next for Burlington and the Lady Huskies stuck to the Panthers in the first quarter, just down by six points. Powell came out hard in the second quarter and outscored the Lady Huskies 30-8. “That ended up being the difference in the game,” said Haslam. “After that we just couldn’t get back in the game mentally and lost 66-36. In looking at our stats, you can see the difference to our previous ones. We weren’t shooting or attempting the things that we normally do.”  

S. McNiven led the team with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Philpott had nine points, three steals and four assists. Adison Haslam added seven points and Hailee Winterholler added eight rebounds. 

Saturday morning, Burlington faced off against Greybull. The game was close, with the Lady Huskies up at halftime 21-14, but Greybull persisted and went on a run that included three 3 pointers in the fourth quarter and Burlington fell 44-42. “These are good games for us to have to fight through and make plays in tight situations. You can see from the stats that we just didn’t play like we do as a team.” 

S. McNiven had 13 points, nine rebounds and five steals, followed by Haslam with 10 points. Bassett led the team defensively with 13 rebounds and seven points. 

The last game of the tournament was against Lovell. “I was excited and really hopeful that the team I saw against Thermopolis would make an appearance again. Lovell started pushing the ball on us and we quit on and off throughout the rest of the game,” Haslam said. “A few of the girls really played and pushed themselves, but we didn’t seem to have all five of them mentally on the court at the same time. We did a good job rebounding again. We had 17 offensive and 24 defensive to out rebound Lovell.” 

Burlington fell, 61-25. S. McNiven had six points and 12 rebounds. Winterholler added five points and eight rebounds and Bassett added four points and eight rebounds. 

The Lady Huskies will travel to Farson on Thursday with a tipoff at 4:30 p.m. and then head to St. Stephens on Saturday with a tipoff at 1:30 p.m. 

Thermopolis  11   2   12  12 – 37 

Burlington     16  16  15  15 – 62 

BURLINGTON – Haslam 3-8 1-4 9, P. Philpott 6-17 1-2 13, S. McNiven 4-10 3-4 11, N. McNiven 4-11 3-3 11, H. Winterholler 5-11 0-0 10, Bassett 3-10 2-4 8. Totals 25-68 10-15 62. 

3-POINT GOALS – Haslam 2. REBOUNDS – Burlington 56 (S. McNiven 19, Bassett, 10, N. McNiven 9). STEALS – Burlington 17 (P. Philpott 6, N. McNiven 6). ASSISTS – Burlington 12 (P. Philpott 5). TURNOVERS – Burlington 23. 

Powell      13  30  16   7 – 66

Burlington  7    8    9  12 – 36

BURLINGTON – Haslam 3-7 0-2 7, P. Philpott 4-16 1-2 9, S. McNiven 4-10 2-2 10, N. McNiven 1-7 3-4 5, H. Winterholler 2-8 0-0 4, Bassett 0-4 1-2 1. Totals 14-53 7-12 36. 

3-POINT GOALS – Haslam 1. REBOUNDS – Burlington 39 (S. McNiven 12, H. Winterholler 8). STEALS – Burlington 6 (P. Philpott 3). ASSISTS – Burlington 8 (P. Philpott 4). TURNOVERS – Burlington 25. 

Greybull    11  3  15  15 – 44

Burlington 12  9   8   13 – 42 

BURLINGTON – Haslam 5-13 0-0 10, P. Philpott 1-15 1-2 3, S. McNiven 5-12 3-4 13, Stanworth 0-0 1-2 1, N. McNiven 1-2 2-4 4, H. Winterholler 2-4 0-0 4, Bassett 2-12 3-4 7. Totals 16-58 10-16 42. 

REBOUNDS – Burlington 37 (Bassett 13, S. McNiven 9). STEALS – Burlington 16 (P. Philpott 5, S. McNiven 5). ASSISTS – Burlington 8 (P. Philpott 5). TURNOVERS – Burlington 20. 

Lovell       11  16  15 19 – 61 

Burlington  9    7    6   3 – 25 

BURLINGTON – Haslam 1-7 1-2 3, P. Philpott 3-7 0-2 6, S. McNiven 1-7 4-6 6, N. McNiven 0-5 1-

REBOUNDS – Burlington 41 (S. McNiven 12, H. Winterholler 8, Bassett 8). STEALS – Burlington 4 (N. McNiven 3). ASSISTS – Burlington 5. TURNOVERS – Burlington 29.