Coming in to the season, teams in the Division I-A North, including the Lowry High School boys basketball team, knew they would have to play a near perfect game to beat Elko.
The Indians have one of the top teams in Nevada again and made their annual trip to Winnemucca on Tuesday.
Elko scored the first eight points of the game and defeated the Buckaroos 60-30. It was the first loss for Lowry at home since Jan. 15, 2013, also against Elko.
"We started the game with three turnovers before we could even get a shot off," said LHS coach Chad Peters. "We come back after halftime and let them score the first 12 points in the third quarter and turn the ball over three times. You can't do that against anybody. Elko is very good, they are experienced, they make you work on defense. Somewhere down the road, I don't need to be the spark plug for this team. Someone else needs to step up and get us going. The way we played tonight is not indicative of the kind of team we are. We played passive."
Lowry (6-1 Division I-A North, 11-6 overall) scored its first points with 2:51 left in the first quarter and picked up another bucket from Jared Taylor, but Elko still led 12-4 after eight minutes. The Buckaroos struggled on offense for much of the night with just 21 shots and barely reached double figures in rebounds.
The Indians opened up a 16-4 lead, then Omar Guerrero knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to make the score 18-10. Elko answered back with seven straight points to take its biggest lead of the first half at 25-10.
The Buckaroos made a short run of their own to cut the deficit to 10 points at halftime, behind a basket from Taylor and a 3-point field goal by Guerrero, his third of the first half.
Elko put the game out of reach with a 12-0 run to start the second half to lead 37-15. After a timeout, Lowry came back with seven points in a row, including a 3-point play by Christian Gray and a put back basket by Garret Naveran.
That was as close as Lowry got the rest of the night, as Elko closed out the game on a 19-6 run.
"We know how it is," Peters said. "Our programs don't change no matter if it's varsity, JV or freshman," Peters said. For a Tuesday night home game against Elko and the crowd the way it was, we sure didn't feed off it. Elko did. We played very sheepish and passive. We weren't scared. This was a night I wanted our kids to go out and enjoy what they were playing in front of. People don't get to experience what they did tonight."
Guerrero led Lowry with nine points, Gray added seven, Taylor six, Naveran four and Brian Shettler and Nathan Lutzow two each.
Lowry is back home tonight to face Spring Creek and close out the first half of the league schedule. The Spartans are currently tied for third in the Division I-A North at 5-2.
"This is the most important game for us," Peters said. "We have to get after and do the things we do. We can't take anything for granted. This a good team that we will be playing."[[In-content Ad]]
