WINNEMUCCA - Professional and college teams are used to building up frequent flyer miles on airplanes in their travels across the country.
The Lowry High School varsity boys basketball team is also racking up miles in its tour through Nevada this December but in buses and suburbans.
The Buckaroos began the first of three road trips in the month with a jaunt down to Las Vegas this past weekend to compete in the Legacy Tip-off Classic.
It was a successful trip for Lowry, who won three out of four games. The Buckaroos played Arbor View on Thursday, Dec. 5, and lost 76-56, but won from there.
Lowry knocked off Southern, a school from Australia, 55-47 on Friday, Dec. 6, and followed that with a 72-71 victory over AUBD 2, another team from Australia on Saturday morning. Lowry closed out the tournament with a 72-54 win over Rancho to finish third out of 12 teams.
"It was a great weekend for us and we did some good things," said LHS head coach Chad Peters. "We knew coming in we had to play a very good Arbor View team to start out with. I went in with the approach of playing everybody. We still had three games to play in two days and there was no reason to get the kids tired. I have 13 guys that work hard in practice and it is hard for them to do that if you don't put them in against the better teams."
Arbor View jumped out to an eight-point advantage in the first quarter, but Lowry climbed back into the game behind eight points from Calvin Connors in the second quarter, which included two 3-point field goals. Josh Watterson added seven points in the second quarter as well as the Buckaroos cut the deficit to 34-32 at halftime.
The Aggies began to pull away late in the third quarter on the strength of three 3-point field goals and eventually put the game out of reach with a 20-11 run in the final eight minutes.
"We are not a team of being 20 up points or 20 down points and throw guys in and so be it," Peters said. "We want to be able to use guys at any time in the game based on personnel and ability. Can you guard the guy I need you to guard? Can you help us and not get yourself in a situation that will embarrass you or hurt us? Arbor View kept their starters in right to the end and it is what it is. I couldn't be happier with the way we played and conducted ourselves,"
Watterson and Connors led Lowry with 15 and 11 points, respectively, while Garrett Naveran added nine. Josh Shaver scored five points, Delane Black four, Christian Gray three and Sterling Dennis and Tytus Millikan one each.
Lowry moved into the realm of international play on Friday, Dec. 6, against Southern. The two schools played to an 8-8 tie after the first quarter, when the Buckaroos pulled away with an 18-8 run in the second quarter. Eldodt came off the bench to provide a spark in the second quarter with eight points, including two 3-point field goals. Thomas Schwartz and Shaver each added a pair of baskets to give Lowry a 26-16 halftime lead.
"Nate and Thomas did a good job of coming off the bench all weekend and giving us good minutes," said the coach. "Josh is playing well right now and making good decisions on the floor."
Watterson scored eight of his team-high 11 points in the third quarter to help the Buckaroos build a 43-23 lead. After scoring just 23 points through three quarters, Southern surpassed that total by a point in the fourth quarter but could get no closer than eight points.
"All of the Australian teams I saw are huge," Peters said. "We are big but they are big and built like adults. We didn't do a very good job of taking care of the ball in the fourth quarter. We turned the ball over a bit too much. We were one of the few teams that went to their bench quite a bit. I was surprised about that. Our guys need to learn to battle through that."
Eldodt joined Watterson in double figures with 10, Schwartz scored seven, Shaver six, Naveran five, Black and Albright scored four each and Connors, Lecumberry and Dusty Bryan each had two points.
Lowry found itself in a shootout against AUBD 2 on Saturday morning, which saw the Australian AAU team hit 15-of-30 3-point field goals.
"They ran their offense based on the 3-point shot," Peters said. "When we let them run their half-court offense they were tough and built their leads. When we jumped in our press or trap, they didn't settle for a layup but threw it out for a 3-point shot. We want teams to do that. But this was the first time in history that I didn't want a team to shoot threes. They didn't miss. If you make 50 percent of 30 3-point shots, you are a great shooting team."
Lowry used an 18-13 run in the second quarter to break a 23-23 tie and lead by five points at halftime. The two teams combined for 10 3-point field goals in the first half with AUBD making six.
The Australian school continued its hot shooting, making six 3-point shots in the third quarter to build a 55-51 advantage. The Buckaroos scored just 10 points in the first eight minutes out of the break with eight of those by Naveran.
Lowry used 16 points from Naveran and Watterson and a basket each by Shaver and Millikan in the fourth quarter to overcome the four-point deficit.
Naveran and Watterson led Lowry with 23 and 18 points, respectively, while Connors had eight points and Black and Shaver each scored seven. Millikan netted five points and Lecumberry and Gray scored two each.
"Delane is playing very well for us right now," Peters said. "He is still learning the system, but if you looked at his hands he had blisters on them from diving on the floor. The kid is getting after it on the floor and that is why he has earned a starting spot."
Lowry closed out the tournament with an18-point victory over Rancho. The Buckaroos jumped on the Division I South school early and built a 41-22 lead at halftime.
"We came out and pressed them right away and they were throwing the ball into the bleachers and out of bounds," Peters said. "We actually had more speed than they did. We got them playing too fast, which was nice."
The advantage grew to 63-33 at the end of the third quarter and Lowry cruised to the victory from there.
Watterson led all scorers with 16 points and was named to the all-tournament team. Connors and Naveran joined him in double figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Shaver scored nine points, Black seven, Gray six, Millikan five, Lecumberry four and Albright two.
"It was our second game of the day and we put up 72 points twice in a row," Peters said. "Our conditioning is paying off. We did really good things."
Lowry began play in the Rail City Classic in Reno against Carson and McQueen on Thursday. Results were not available at press time. The tournament continues on Friday and Saturday with game times to be determined.
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