Defending 4A Champ Evanston Starts Season With Win at East [VIDEO]

Highlights of the Thursday, November 29th Boys Basketball game, between #3 Evanston at #3 East.

Scroll down to watch the highlights of the game!

A 15-0 run from late 2nd into the middle of the 3rd quarter, was what the Red Devils to an opening season game win.

It may be the first game of the season, but the cheerleaders were already in mid-season form. Then again, they had all of the football season to work on their routine.

Evanston at Cheyenne East…both team tied for #3 in the 4A polls…first quarter…East wearing the white…here’s Ryan Cook putting something in the oven at 180 degrees for 32 minutes…and his team would take an early 4-to-2 lead.

The seniors for the Thunderbirds were trying to lead by example…great drive and finish by Dixon Maggard as he’ll just weave his way through traffic, and the score is now 6-to-4.

But Evanston was just starting to heat up…here’s Jemini Leckie…stops, pops…banks…and hits for 2 of his 12 points to knot the score up at 6 points a piece for each team.

The home team was sticking to what was working…with a small twist here and there. Maggard tried the drive again, but instead he’ll give the ball to Brandon Fullmer who was open behind the D…and the score was 10-to-7 after the first 8 minutes were finished.

2nd quarter…the Red Devils were still trying to light the match…and they were getting something…Kade Lym calls for the ball and he’ll take care of the rest and he chipped in with 16 points for the cause…his team is still down 13-to-11...but the Thunderbirds would fly right back…Cook drives again and gets another lay up in the lane…his team got those 2 points right back and they’re up 15-to-11.

Now this play is just good defense…the visitors were not paying attention to where Clint Jaure (Jar)was…he’ll help himself to a free gift and that was an easy 2 points. Home team still leads 17-to-11.

That lit a fire for Evanston and they responded…Leckie picks off the pass and he’s going to take care of business himself, by getting 2 points off of the turnover…it was a start, and the visitors are now down 17-13.

Time to get another senior in here…how about Matt Johnson? He’s the one who had the game winning rejection in the state championship game last season…now he’s scoring points…17 to lead all players…this game is tied again at 17.

East was not about ready to fly south for the winter after that little spurt…Quintin Pope is going to let ‘er fly for 3 and connect…he was the only player on his team with double digit scoring…14 for him and his team is back on top 20-to-17.

Then they’d reach into their bag of tricks on this in-bounds play…Tracy Calahan with the alley…and Maggard with the oop on the finish…that’s good team work…the scoreboard now reads, 22-to-17.

They had a few other surprises as well…like this one…Maggard draws the defense in and finds a wide open Fullmer…you saw this play earlier and they pulled it off again…home team is up 24-21.

But the Red Devils kept hanging around and here’s where they started to make their move…Lym is at the top of the key…and he’s opening the door for 3 at the buzzer…that was a huge momentum builder to tie the score at 24, going into the locker room.

3rd quarter…Evanston caught fire and started to burn the nets…Leckie…lighting the fuse….boom! That was a sign of things to come…visitors lead 28-24.

Then they took a page out their opponents play-book…Johnson finds Nathan Chandler open behind 3 players and got 2 points behind their back…now it’s a 30-to-24 contest.

They could do very little wrong at this point…not sure if this was a bad shot or a pass, but as long as Johnson got his hands on the ball…who cares? The refs give him one more and his team has a 33-24 lead.

This run started with a 3 at the halftime buzzer…and it’s ending with a 3 courtesy of Leckie…15 straight points for the Red Devils and they have taken control of this game…leading 36-to-24.

East has gone 5 minutes plus and they needed some points, big time…Pope will stop the bleeding for a little while with this long ball…but his team needed more, trailing 36-to-27.

The Thunderbirds were hoping for some buzzer beating magic of their own, but the opposition had other ideas…Sean Ruskanen is rejected by Chandler…gets it back…and gets rejected by Taylor Siemers just before the clock run out. Not this time…Evanston up 40-to-27 going into the final 8 minutes.

4th quarter…the visitors still had a few hot spots to deal with before this one was over…good base line drive and finish by Lym as he’d give his team a 13 point cushion…it’s now 42-29.

East had some work to do being down double digits in their first game of the season…Joe Ash drives…then decides that 3 is better than 2 and he’ll leave the rest up to Pope who will do his part, but they needed a lot more trailing 42-32.

The defending 4A state champs were able to handle the heat and dish some out…Johnson scores off the inbounds…as Evanston would start their season out right…winning on the road…53-to-39.