Coming off two consecutive losses on its home floor, including a last-second defeat to Spring Creek, the Lowry High School boys basketball team was looking to right the ship with two road games last weekend.
The Buckaroos did just that, knocking off South 58-48 on Friday, Jan. 23, and Dayton 64-41 on Saturday to improve to 8-2 in the Division I-A North and 13-7 overall. Lowry moved to 6-0 on the road in league play.
"It was two big wins for us," said LHS coach Chad Peters. "We played hard, played smart and played good. South Tahoe is a tough place to play at. It was nice to see us come back and get a couple of wins after how poorly we played at home the week before. We had a good week of practice, changed a few things and got after it. We were a lot more mentally focus on what we were doing."
It was a slow start for both Lowry and South Tahoe as the two teams combined for 14 points in the first quarter, with Lowry having the slight edge at 9-5. The Vikings battled back with a 20-point second quarter, only to see the Buckaroos keep the lead at the break at 27-25.
Lowry began to slowly pull away in the second half, opening up an eight-point advantage in the third period.
"We gained momentum in each quarter and that was nice to see," Peters said.
The Buckaroos saved their best for last in the final eight minutes, outscoring the Vikings 19-14. South Tahoe sat back in a zone defense and Lowry patiently ran its offense to get good looks at the basket,
"We played well and smart in the fourth quarter," Peters said. "We ran our motion offense for about three minutes. We had a five-point lead with about four or five minutes to go and didn't need to shoot the ball. South Tahoe had to come get us. Unless we get a layup, we weren't going to shoot. They were going to have to fouls us and we went 13-for-15 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. That was very nice. We showed some patience and maturity and that wins games for you. Our defense picked up as notch and we did a lot of switching. We did a nice of finding guys and got a lot of big boards."
Seven different players scored for Lowry, with Christian Gray scoring a season-high 23 points. Nathan Lutzow added eight points and five rebounds, Jared Taylor and Omar Guerrero each had seven points and Taylor added three rebounds and one assist.
Sterling Dennis finished with six points, six rebounds, two assists and one steal and Garrett Naveran netted five points and grabbed seven rebounds. Thomas Schwartz also had a bucket for the Buckaroos.
"Christian got back on track offensively, but especially on defense," said the coach. "All in all it was better and he is too athletic not to play defense."
Lowry closed out the road trip with a 23-point over Dayton, aided by a 19-6 spurt in the second quarter to give the Buckaroos a 36-18 lead at halftime.
We just came out and played very aggressive," Peters said. "Nathan and Jared played well and were very aggressive. We need that from those guys. We did a good job of pounding the ball inside."
Like most teams have done this year, the Dust Devils played mostly a zone defense against the Buckaroos. Lowry still managed to shoot 49 percent from the field, after getting the ball inside to its post players.
The Buckaroos extended their lead to 54-31 after three quarters of play and cruised from there. The coach said he was pleased with the play of Jacob Hales, Roberto Sanchez, Jacob Von Aspern, Brian Shettler and Chris Tyree coming off the bench.
"I was happy with the way everyone played," Peters said. "The guys that came off the bench gave us some good minutes and did a really nice job in the minutes they played. They kept the intensity up on defense and were patient on offense."
Lutzow had a double-double on the day with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Taylor and Guerrero joined him in double figures with 15 and 10 points, respectively. Gary and Naveran each added eight points, while Naveran had seven rebounds and Hales and Sanchez had two points apiece.
"Its weird how that two-game stretch can be as poor as it was and come back and do such a nice and positive thing on the road," Peters said. It was wins that we needed. Right now, realistically unless someone knocks off Elko, we aren't going to catch them. We can shoot for beating Spring Creek and Fallon and be where we want to be. Fallon and South Tahoe lost both games this weekend and we have a two-game advantage over them. We are in a good spot. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that we would be 8-2 in league I would have said you are crazy. We are doing OK."
Lowry hosts Sparks tonight at 7:30 p.m. and Truckee on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
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