GUERNSEY – After a tough loss to the Lingle-Fort Laramie Doggers on Monday night, the Southeast Cyclones traveled to Guernsey-Sunrise to take on the Vikings and came away with a 66-44 victory.

The 1A Southeast Conference matchup was big for the Cyclones as a win would secure the No. 1 seed in the conference and put them in the No. 1 versus No. 4 game at regional basketball in Buffalo. 

The game started out slow with the Cyclones not scoring until two minutes in, after that the lead was taken on a free throw from Southeast sophomore Ayden Desmond. This sparked a 16-6 run for the Cyclones in the first quarter where four of the five starters had scored. 

After starting the second quarter off with two straight 3-point shots, the Cyclones kept their foot on the gas and pushed the lead to 21 at halftime. Junior Cole Sauer was on fire from beyond the arc with nine points from 3-point range in the first half of play. 

Coming out the locker room after half, Southeast was still hot but put up their lowest scoring quarter with 12 points. The fourth quarter was a different story as Southeast reached its biggest lead of the night at 29 points. 

The defense seemed to be the real factor for Southeast in this game as they held Guernsey to single digit quarters twice. 

To pair with the defense, the Cyclones had four double-digit scorers. Senior Austin Short led the team with 21 points, while senior Cooper Larkin had 13. Desmond added 14, and Sauer had 13. 

Southeast made five total 3-pointers on the night and shot 15 of 22 from the line. 

After playing four games in the last five days, the Cyclones will finally get a break as they have the rest of the week to prepare to play another conference rival in Hanna-Elk Mountain. They play the Miners for their last regular season game on Saturday, Feb. 15.