A Rough End to the Season for Both Laramie Basketball Teams

Both Laramie High School basketball teams had their season end on Thursday with losses at the 4A Southeast Regional Quadrant tournament in Cheyenne.

Both LHS teams got eliminated with losses to Cheyenne East. The girls fell 69-39, and the boys lost 67-53.

The Laramie Lady Plainsmen had a very good opening quarter but struggled after that. Laramie trailed 20-16, thanks to seven first-quarter points by senior Kayla Vasquez. In the second, LHS was held to just four points and trailed 32-20 at the break. Cheyenne East pulled away from Laramie in the second half for the 30-point victory.

Vasquez, Kylee Cox, and Kylin Shipman led LHS with seven points apiece.

Laramie finished the season with a final record of 7-12.

The Plainsmen allowed Cheyenne East to explode offensively with a 25-point first quarter. The Thunderbirds shot 60 percent in the opening quarter.

Laramie took a 3-0 lead on a Garrett Dodd triple, but Cheyenne East scored off back-to-back turnovers and never trailed the rest of the game. It was 20-13 late in the first when East hit a three and then stole the in-bounds pass for another basket just before the buzzer and a 25-13 lead.

The Plainsmen trailed 42-24 early in the third quarter before a small rally. A 7-0 run pulled LHS within 42-31, but that’s as close as Laramie got.

Mahlon Morris scored 14 points, and Jaedyn Brown had 13 for the Plainsmen.

Head coach Jim Shaffer said we got behind but kept battling and kept getting after it.

“Just couldn’t ever get over the hump, and we didn’t shoot the basketball very well, obviously. You’ve got to give them a ton of credit. I mean, they get after you on the perimeter defensively, and they got into us. We didn’t really give it up for layups, as much as we did last week, but we just really struggled to get into offense and get anything going.”

The Plainsmen finish their season with an 11-8 record.

The Laramie girls haven’t made the state tournament since 2017, while the boys haven’t made it since 2016.