WINNEMUCCA - With the season starting to heat up, the Lowry High School varsity boys basketball team was looking to send the rest of the Division I-A a message that it is ready to defend its state championship.
The Buckaroos (11-3 overall, 6-0 Division I-A North) did just that this past weekend with resounding wins over Dayton (66-27) on Friday night in Winnemucca and a 80-48 thrashing of South Tahoe on Saturday afternoon night in California.
"Except for one quarter against Dayton, we probably played some of our best basketball of the year," said LHS head coach Chad Peters. "We played 100 percent better in the second half against Dayton. We have a goal to where we need to be. We are trying to get better and we need all 12 guys to do that."
Dayton brought Friday night's game to a crawl in the first quarter with its flex offense. The Dust Devils attempted to hold the ball for minutes at a time, with no success. Dayton shot the ball only a handful of times and went scoreless for the first 10 minutes of the night.
Lowry picked up four points apiece from Jesse Studebaker and Calvin Connors and 3-point field goal from Josh Watterson to lead 12-0 after the first quarter of play.
The Buckaroos built a 22-2 advantage midway through the second quarter but saw most of the margin disappear when the Dust Devils closed out the first half on a 13-2 run, cutting the deficit to nine points at halftime.
"We gave a team a glimmer of hope for one quarter that they could play with us," Peters said. "We just didn't do a good job in the second quarter. We took a big step back in that quarter."
What chance Dayton believed it had was silenced in the opening minutes of the second half as Lowry scored the first eight points of the third period. The Buckaroos held the Dust Devils without a point for the first four minutes of the quarter.
Studebaker scored 12 of his game-high 18 points in the third quarter, helping Lowry build a 47-20 lead.
Watterson received the biggest ovation of the night after being called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim on a slam dunk attempt. The junior made the dunk but it was waived off due to offensive goal-tending.
The Buckaroos scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter and cruised to the finish.
Watterson finished the night with 12 points, Connors seven, Garrett Naveran, Tyler Brumm and Chris Dendary six each, Tytus Millikan four and Justin Albright, Tanner Lecumberry and Josh Shaver had two points apiece. Nate Eldodt was 1-of-2 from the free throw line for one point.
Lowry had the tough task of getting on the bus at 8 a.m. for a 4:30 p.m. tipoff at South Tahoe on Saturday. The Vikings came into the game with one loss in league play and that was a five-point loss at Elko.
"I was proud of how the guys came out and played against a big and experienced team," Peters said. "We came off a win against a team that is not that good and the guys got up early, made the trip in a cold bus and had to sit around for a few hours before playing a game."
South Tahoe used a couple of back-door cuts to score the first four points of the contest but it was all Lowry after that. The Buckaroos outscored the Vikings 23-10 in the first quarter and the rout was on.
"There wasn't much we did wrong," added the coach. "We shot 50 percent from the field, played good defense, passed the ball well and took care of the ball. We got Jesse and Garrett the ball early in the game and that opened up the outside for us. If we play like that every night, very few teams will beat us."
Lowry added 40 points in the second half in its highest-scoring game of the year. The Buckaroos made a season-high six 3-point field goals. Watterson had a breakout night with 29 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Studebaker and Connors joined him in double figures with 17 and 12 points, respectively. Millikan scored seven points, Naveran six, Shaver five, and Brumm and Albright two each.
One of the top games in the Division I-A this year takes place tonight in Winnemucca as Lowry hosts Elko at 7:30 p.m. The Indians won both regular season games last year but the Buckaroos knocked off Elko to win the state championship.
"It is a big rivalry game for us," Peters said. "We have the chance to play them three times this year. You are not going to have any better atmosphere than our gym on Tuesday night."
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