ELKO - Little by little, the Lowry High School freshmen boys basketball team is learning to play with more confidence. That was evident Tuesday as the Buckaroos continued its month-long road trip at Elko.
Lowry held a lead throughout the first half but fell behind midway through the third quarter. The Buckaroos overcame the slim deficit and came back to beat the Indians 60-53.
"It was nice to go out and see the way we competed today," said LHS coach Grant Beatty. "We dropped the last couple of games that were close. We fought back and played well. We did a lot of the little things right. If this is a month ago, I don't know if we win the game."
Lowry collected six points from Jed Teichert and four each from Brady Lange and Jacob Hernandez in helping build a 19-14 lead in the first quarter. Salvador Perez netted a pair of buckets in the second quarter to help the Buckaroos maintain a six-point lead, 27-21 at halftime.
The Indians caught fire at the start of the third period to grab their first lead of the day, but the Buckaroos quickly answered to keep a seven-point advantage entering the fourth quarter.
Lowry had to withstand three 3-point field goals by Elko in the final eight minutes of play. The Buckaroos were also 5-of-6 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, helping pad the lead.
Hernandez paced the Buckaroos with 17 points, with 13 of those points in the second half. Teichert joined him in double figures with 10 points and Joe Taylor and Lange each had eight. Dustin Gray chipped in six points, Darrin Nelson and Perez four each and Travis Hardy two.
"Elko has a nice team and I thought we did a good job of containing them," Beatty said. It was a good win for us. It shows the kids that we can compete with anybody in the league. It gives the kids more and more confidence."
Lowry was on the road this past weekend to play Fernley and Churchill County. The Buckaroos notched a win over the Vaqueros on Jan. 10, where Gray led Lowry with 10 points.
Teichert and Lane each scored eight points, Taylor seven, Brian Kelly, Perez and Hernandez six each and Austin Robison and Gray had two points apiece.
Lowry was in Fallon on Saturday and suffered a 64-57 loss to the Greenwave, the first of the season in league play.
"It was a game that we should have won," Beatty said. "It's a game that we gave away. Elko beat them by double figures. We have to play at our level and not drop to our opponents level."
Teichert and Nelson scored 14 and 11 points, respectively, while Lange joined them in double figures with 10. Taylor netted eight points, Gray six and Hernandez and Kelly four each.
Lowry is back on the road on Friday to play Truckee at 4:30 p.m. The game was originally set for Jan. 4. The Buckaroos will come back down from the Sierra Nevada mountains to play at Reed on Saturday at 1 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]
