Liljedahl, Castle lead Lady T-Birds over Central

The Cheyenne East freshman sparked her team multiple times during a 62-43 win over cross-town rival Cheyenne Central at Storey Gym.

“She has a lot of talent,” East senior Kaiti Castle said. “She’s going to be a great player when she gets older. And just her confidence that she has in her teammates, the trust that she has, I think just puts a spark in us and just hypes us up.”

The first quarter mostly came and went with more combined turnovers and other blunders than points. No. 2-ranked East (19-3 overall, 5-1 Class 4A Southeast Quadrant) studied how to get sharp-shooting senior Ky Buell open with multiple Central (16-4, 4-2) players taking turns face-guarding her. The No. 3-ranked Indians, meanwhile, had trouble cracking East’s full-court press and, quite frankly, putting the ball through the hoop.

“It’s tough because it’s a rivalry game,” Central coach Glen Kirkbride said. “But the reality of it is, man, we’ve still got the eyes on the prize. The next two weeks are what we’ve been playing for since the season ended last year.

“I give (East) all the credit in the world. That group played well, especially a couple of their other players.”

Liljedahl was one of them. Her energy and confidence were contagious. Her teammates followed her lead.

But as time wound down, Liljedahl drained a 3-pointer to give the T-Birds a 10-6 lead. Nothing in particular was fancy about the shot, but it sparked what became a 14-4 run for East that extended well into the second quarter that translated to a 23-13 advantage.

“We had more of our pace,” second-year East coach Eric Westling said. “I’m not going to say all game we had pace. Central’s a heck of a team, and they, at times, made us go back to that pace that they like. We’ve just got to play more of the game at our pace.”

When it looked like East was threatening to run away with the game before halftime, the Indians established some much-needed rhythm. It kept them in the game. Senior Ellie Fearneyhough was the focal point of Central’s late-second quarter mini run. Her six points – all in the paint – helped cut East’s lead to 25-20 at the intermission.

Liljedahl was at it again in the third quarter. Her third 3 of the game capped a 9-0 run and put her team up 42-32.

Castle took over from there.

The T-Birds standout didn’t attempt a single shot the first half. She hit five 3s in the second half and finished with 15 points. She knocked down consecutive 3-pointers with 3 minutes, 11 seconds remaining in regulation to put the T-Birds up 55-40.

Central avoided a scare earlier in the fourth when senior Jayla Jones went down to the court and immediately grabbed her left leg. Turns out it was a bad leg cramp, according to Kirkbride. Fearneyhough and Kelsey Basart paced Central with 12 points each. Buell led all scorers with 19.

But it was Castle who provided the dagger in the second half to split the regular season series with Central.

“I just kept finding my rhythm,” she said. “I was pretty much wide open every single time. The help came on (Buell) or anyone else, they just passed it out to me, and I had to find my rhythm and just kept hitting it.”

EAST 62, CENTRAL 43

Cheyenne East................................. 12 13 17 20 – 62

Cheyenne Central.............................. 8 12 14 9 – 43

Cheyenne East: R. Jacobsen 0, E. Jacobsen 6, C. Alvarado 0, Lopez 2, Blaney 9, G. Buell 19, Liljedahl 11, Castle 15, Walsh 0, Danni 0.

Cheyenne Central: Boltz 1, Jo. Jones 6, Cowley 0, Sallee 5, E. Fearneyhough 12, Basart 12, Ja. Jones 4, Brant 3.