WINNEMUCCA - A sold-out Winnemucca crowd got the taste of professional basketball Tuesday night as the Reno Bighorns brought their show on the road to Lowry High School.
In their only preseason game of the season, the Bighorns defeated the Idaho Stampede 111-103, behind 24 points and eight rebounds from 22 year-old Tyler Honeycutt. Honeycutt, who attended UCLA, spent most of last season with the Sacramento Kings of the NBA. Reno, a developmental NBA squad, is affiliated with Sacramento, the Memphis Grizzlies and Utah Jazz.
Reno players and staff spent much of Tuesday visiting area schools, before taking to the floor to play. Bighorns owner Herb Santos Jr. called the trip to Winnemucca a success and hopes to come back next year and possibly make the event even bigger.
"I thought it was great and fans came out and supported us," said Santos Jr. "The way I looked at it tonight, we were the Winnemucca Bighorns. We have always talked about this being a community team and we were at home with all the fans. Tonight was just an extension of our fans."
Early plans are to move the game to the Winnemucca Event Center next year, where the game would be played on a regulation 94-foot floor. The floor at Lowry High School is 90 feet long.
"We always hope to put quality basketball on for the fans," Santos Jr. said. "This was the first time for myself and Michael (Reynolds, president of the Reno Bighorns) to see the team in action. We have a lot of new faces on the team. We are so thankful for the Winnemucca community to let us come in to their house. It would be great to make this an annual event. We will start talking quickly and maybe make it even bigger next year.
Neither team seemed to have trouble with the fan-shaped backboards, with the Bighorns and Stampede combining for 70 points in the first quarter. Reno led Idaho 41-29 on the strength of four 3-point field goals.
"You are not going to get too many first quarters like that," said second-year Reno head coach Paul Mokeski. "It is hard to keep that kind of pace up for four full quarters."
Idaho used a 19-7 run at the start of the second quarter to tie the game at 48-48 on a steal and slam dunk by Boise State grad Jason Ellis. Reno followed with five consecutive points and eventually led 58-55 at halftime.
The Bighorns did not trail the rest of the game, opening the third quarter with eight consecutive points to build an 11-point advantage at 66-55. After scoring just 17 points in the second quarter, Reno bounced back with 32 points in the third period to lead 90-82 going into the final 12 minutes of play.
Back-to-back baskets by Honeycutt and Will Blaylock, who attended Iowa State, gave Reno a 13-point advantage in the fourth period and the Bighorns were not threatened again.
"It's always good to talk after a win," Mokeski said. "I thought the entire event was great. We went and visited the schools, which was great and the guys appreciated everything. The game was exciting and it is really neat to bring this style of basketball to Winnemucca. It was a high-level game for the first time out there. It was nice to play someone else, instead of each other in scrimmages. Both of us are quality teams and I hoped everyone went away entertained."
The Bighorns open their fifth season in Reno on Friday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m. against the Santa Cruz Warriors. Reno still has a few roster moves to get down to their final 10-man roster for the regular season.
"We were able to evaluate a bunch of different things," Mokeski said. "We have kept it simple for a reason. Now we have the chance at looking at tape and breaking down stuff. We have the leisure of having 10 days before we open the regular season. It is time for us to get to work now."
The event was a fundraiser for the Winnemucca Century Club, the booster club for Lowy. Winnemucca Century Club received nearly $15,000 in donations from area businesses for the game.
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