WINNEMUCCA - By the end of last Saturday, the road-weary Lowry High School varsity boys basketball team looked like a squad playing its eighth game in 10 days.
The Buckaroos have spent most of the last two weeks in Las Vegas and Reno hotel rooms in a grueling start to the season. Lowry took part in the Rail City Classic last week and defeated four Division I North schools in a three-day span to claim the tournament championship and improve to 8-1 on the season. The only loss this year was to Arbor View, who is ranked No. 2 in the state behind Bishop Gorman.
Lowry played twice on Thursday, Dec. 12, and started off with a 50-40 victory over Carson. The Buckaroos were on the floor 90 minutes later and knocked off McQueen 58-54. In the semifinals on Friday, Dec. 13, Lowry jumped out to a quick start and beat Reed. The Buckaroos closed out the tournament on Saturday with a 57-52 victory over Damonte Ranch.
"I was concerned with the first night the most because I knew we had to play two games," said LHS head coach Chad Peters. "We are there to play Carson and the gym isn't ready to go, so we have to hang around and do nothing for about an hour. If you have a young and inexperienced team, that could be enough to screw up the entire day. We did come out a little flat. If you look at our four games, the only one we really dominated from start to finish was Reed. In the other three, we did what we needed to do to win."
Calvin Connors hit two 3-point field goals early in the first quarter to give Lowry a 9-2 lead over Carson. But the Buckaroos struggled with foul trouble and shooting the rest of the way.
The Senators cut the Buckaroos advantage to two points near the end of the first quarter, only to have Lowry go on an 11-3 run to lead 23-12. Garrett Naveran, who was named the tournament MVP, scored the last basket of the first quarter and the first of the second. After a steal and layup by Delane Black, Connors connected on his third 3-point field goal of the first half.
The Buckaroos remained in control throughout the third quarter and led 35-23, when the Senators went on a 7-0 run to cut the gap to five points. Carson closed within a basket at 42-40 with 2:54 left in the game, but those were the final points for the Senators as the Buckaroos scored the final eight points of the game.
Josh Watterson put back a shot to put Lowry up 44-40 and Josh Shaver made four free throws in the final 45 seconds to secure the win.
Connors and Black led Lowry with 16 and 10 points, respectively. Naveran added nine points at 11 rebounds, Watterson had six points and Tytus Millikan two.
Lowry found itself in a back-and-forth game with McQueen as the Lancers took an18-14 first-quarter lead. The Buckaroos rallied to grab a one-point advantage at halftime, but that was short-lived as the Lancers went on a 16-9 run in the third quarter.
Trailing 45-39 at the start of the fourth quarter, Lowry began its rally and reclaimed the lead at 50-49 with 3:45 to play on a layup by Christian Gray. The Buckaroos did not trail again, though the Lancers cut the deficit to two points with 10 seconds to play on a steal and layup. Lowry held on from there, making two free throws in the end. The Buckaroos outscored the Lancers 19-9 in the final eight minutes.
Lowry picked up a balanced scoring attack with 13 points from Watterson and 11 and 10 from Shaver and Naveran, respectively. Naveran and Watterson finished with double-doubles, with each grabbing 11 rebounds. Gray contributed eight points and two rebounds, Connors had seven points, three rebounds and two assists and Dusty Bryan and Tanner Lecumberry finished with five and two points, respectively.
In the semifinals, it looked like Lowry was going to have its hands full with Reed as the Raiders led 10-7 in the first period. However, that proved to be the only highlight for Reed as Lowry held the Sparks school without a field goal for nearly 11 minutes.
The Buckaroos scored the final seven points of the first quarter and
outscored the Raiders 18-1 in the second period to cap off a 25-1 run over the final 10:41 of the first half.
Reed closed within 17 points at 40-23 in the third quarter, but Lowry scored 12 of the next 15 points to lead 52-26 and never looked back.
Shaver, who was named to the all-tournament team, led all scorers with 17 points. Bryan had his best offensive game of the year with 12 points and Connors scored seven. Nate Eldodt and Watterson each scored six points, Millikan had five, Thomas Schwartz and Gray four each and Justin Albright and Naveran had two.
Lowry moved into the championship game on Saturday against Damonte Ranch and overcame a poor shooting day to pull out the victory. The Buckaroos were 7-for-21 from the free throw line, including 2-for-11 in the first half.
"I thought we played horrible for three and a half quarters," Peters said. "I don't think we could have played any worse. Damonte out-hustled us and out-played us. We looked like a team that was playing its eighth game in 10 days. But that is why we put that schedule together. If you would of told me at the beginning of November that we would be 8-1, I would have took that bet. It's not they are winnable games, it us just a tough schedule. You have high school kids spending six of the last 10 nights in hotel rooms."
Damonte Ranch held a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter and was up 52-50 with two minutes left to go after converting a 3-point play. That turned out to be the final points for the Mustangs as the Buckaroos finished the game on a 7-0 run. Lowry took the lead for good at 54-52 on a short jump shot by Naveran.
Naveran led Lowry with 20 points and nine rebounds and Watterson chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds. Millikan and Shaver added six points each, Gray had five, Black four and Connors and Eldodt two each.
Lowry opens league play tonight at South Tahoe at 7:30 p.m. The Buckaroos travel to Dayton on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. tip.
"Our short term goal was to go down to Vegas and do the best we could," Peters said. "We finished third. When we left Vegas, our goal was to win the Rail City Classic. We didn't get after it the way I intended us to. But we got after it mentally in the fourth quarter. We did a fabulous job of not panicking when we could have. We played good team basketball in the fourth quarter against those four teams than any other team I have had. I am pleased, but not satisfied with our effort so far."
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