BURNS – The Southeast High School girls’ basketball team went 3-1 at the annual Burns Winter Classic Thursday through Saturday.
On Thursday, the Lady Cyclones opened the season with a rematch of the 2018-19 Class 2A state championship game against the Wyoming Indian Lady Chiefs.
Wyoming Indian raced past Southeast, 47-20, but the Lady Cyclones bounced back Friday and Saturday with a trio of victories.
On Friday afternoon, Southeast saw two differing styles of basketball, ultimately coming away with a pair of wins.
“It was a good learning experience with two different styles of games,” Cyclone coach Jennifer Scheer said.
In the afternoon, Southeast saw a much faster-paced game against Saratoga, edging the Panthers, 61-57.
“It was a very fast paced, physical game,” Scheer said. “A tremendous amount of foul shots shot, and it was hard to get into any type of rhythm. It was one of those games where they played super aggressive defense, and I thought we handled it well.”
Later that day, Southeast edged Shoshoni in a low-scoring, defensive affair, 26-19.
It took Southeast seven minutes into the game before finding the bottom of the net against the Lady Blue.
“We found a way to win, and I’m proud of that,” Scheer said.
By that point, Shoshoni had jumped out to an 8-0 lead before freshman Sydney Anderson put the Lady Cyclones on the scoreboard.
“We still have a lot of things we desperately need to work on and fix,” Scheer said. “I thought the kids had to dig deep. They are tired and short on the bench. It’s a pretty physical team, and they had some height on us. We did what we needed to. We took care of the basketball.”
Southeast slowly chipped away at the deficit. Senior Kendall Haas drained a 3-pointer with nine seconds left, cutting the Shoshoni lead to 12-11 by the half.
Midway through the third quarter, Kealy Carson connected on a 3-pointer to tie the contest, but it wasn’t until early in the fourth quarter when senior Kadra Clark tallied a steal and layup to put the Lady Cyclones in front 18-16.
“She is a pretty good spark for us,” Scheer said of Clark. “She is always hustling and going hard. She makes things happen. It was a big possession for us.”
Southeast never relinquished the lead for the remainder of the game, outscoring the Lady Blue, 10-3 over the final quarter.
“In the fourth quarter, we made some good decisions and got the ball moving better,” Scheer said. “Our offense wasn’t nearly as stagnate, and we were able to execute.”
Clark led the Lady Cyclones with nine points, while Carson added six. Anderson tossed in five, and Brenna Herring, Carly Keller and Grace Desmond had two each.
On Saturday, Southeast wrapped up the tournament with a 37-32 victory over Little Snake River.
The Lady Cyclones travel to Lingle for the Dogger Classic Friday and Saturday. Southeast will face Rock River at noon and Guernsey-Sunrise at 6 p.m. on Friday before wrapping up play with Kaycee at noon on Saturday.
