CHEYENNE – The Southeast High School girls’ basketball team had a busy weekend, playing five games over three days.
The Lady Cyclones were a late addition to the James Johnson Winter Classic in Cheyenne, and the team also mixed in a pair of conference games against Rock River and Hanna-Elk Mountain.
The WyoPreps.com Class 1A top-ranked team’s busy weekend began on Thursday afternoon in a defensive slugfest against Class 3A Wheatland in a 28-19 win.
The Lady Bulldogs scored the first two points of the game, but senior Kealy Carson got the Lady Cyclones on the scoreboard and in the lead over the next two minutes.
Wheatland only led one more time for the remainder of the game.
With 3:19 left in the first quarter, senior Sydney Anderson went 2-for-2 at the free-throw line to put Southeast back in front for good.
The Lady Cyclones held a four-point lead at the break, but Southeast started to pull away in the third quarter.
Southeast limited Wheatland to only one point in the third quarter.
The Lady Cyclones got four points from Anderson early in the quarter to start pulling away, as they pushed the lead to double digits.
Southeast’s lead topped out at 28-14 in the fourth quarter before Wheatland scored the final five points of the game.
Anderson led the team with 12 points, while Carson had eight.
On Friday morning and for the second time this season, Southeast squared off against Class 3A top-ranked Douglas.
In the second meeting, Douglas handed Southeast its second loss of the season 42-34.
The Lady Bearcats led 9-4 at the end of one, and the Lady Cyclones closed the gap to 15-14 by halftime.
Douglas came out of the third quarter, outscoring Southeast 17-8 to take a 32-22 lead into the final eight minutes.
The Lady Cyclones got no closer than eight points in the fourth quarter.
Anderson led the team with 13 points, while Carson added 10.
Later that day, Southeast traveled to Rock River and came away with a 50-27 win over the Lady Longhorns.
The teams were all knotted at nine before the Lady Cyclones started to pull away in the second quarter.
Southeast pushed its lead to 23-14 at halftime before extending it to 41-16 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Carson led the team with 19 points, while junior Bailey Booth with 13 points. Senior Shelby Ekwall had eight.
On Saturday morning, Southeast wrapped up play in Cheyenne with a 41-33 win over the Cheyenne East JV.
Carson led the Lady Cyclones with 18 points, while Booth had nine.
Southeast held an 11-4 lead after one, pushing it to 20-11 by halftime. The Lady Cyclones were held to only two points in the third quarter as East closed the gap to a one-point lead 22-21 heading into the final quarter.
Southeast finished strong with 19 points in the fourth quarter with 10 points coming from the free-throw line.
In the afternoon, Southeast, with the junior varsity squad, defeated Hanna-Elk Mountain 37-19.
The visiting Lady Miners led most of the first quarter until freshman Hadley Leithead converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to give the Lady Cyclones a 9-7 advantage.
It wasn’t until Southeast’s 11-2 run in the second quarter when they started pulling away from HEM.
Southeast capped off the game outscoring the Lady Miners 10-1 over the final eight minutes.
Leithead led the Lady Cyclones with 15 points, while freshman Kaycee Kosmicki added 11.
Southeast (10-2) is back in action at Lingle on Thursday. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.
