ELKO - It's only the third week of January but the Lowry High School junior varsity girls basketball team put in its candidacy for game of the year.
The Lady Bucks traveled to Elko on Tuesday and saw a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter disappear, before coming back for a 68-66 victory in triple overtime.
"I don't mind games like this," said LHS coach Shelly Smith. "I would rather have a game like that instead of playing in a blow out. I want the girls to work as hard as they can.
"I had girls off my bench step up. We had three starters foul out. Before the third overtime you could hear the girls say 'this is why we condition'. Now they know why we do all that conditioning."
Chelsea Herrera connected on a short shot at the beginning of the fourth quarter to give the Lady Bucks a 45-31 advantage, but it was all Indians after that to the end of regulation.
Elko scored the next 16 points, taking advantage of a handful of turnovers by the Lady Bucks.
Leading 47-45 with 2:58 left to play, Elko attempted to run time off the clock, when Lowry's Tiana Herrera stole the ball and made a layup to tie the game. The Indians countered with a basket with 80 seconds to play to go in front 49-47, only to see the Lady Bucks' Maddie Mayo hit a 15-foot jump shot to send the game into overtime at 49-49.
"We just lost our concentration for a while and that should have not happened," Smith said. "We stopped doing what we had been for the first three quarters. I was happy with the way the girls came back to get it into overtime."
The nerves were evident in the first extra period, as Elko took the lead at 50-49 on a free throw. Caitlynn Cooper put Lowry in front at 51-50 with 1:25 to play on a steal and layup. Eight seconds later, Elko tied the game at 51-51 and the contest went to a second overtime.
The Indians nailed a 3-point field goal off the tip at half court and increased the margin to 57-52 with 2:57 left to play. A shot by Haley Hall brought the Lady Bucks within three at 57-54 and the two schools traded free throws the next time down the floor.
Elko had a chance to pull away in the final 90 seconds but missed four free throws. After the miss of the second pair of free throws, Lowry's Brooklyn Waller hit a jump shot to cut the lead to two points and the freshman put the Lady Bucks in front at 59-58 after a steal.
Lowry was called for a foul with no time left on the clock. Elko made the first free throw to tie the game, but missed the second to send the game to a third extra period.
The Lady Bucks scored five of the first six points in triple overtime off of baskets by Herrera and Waller and a free throw by Mayo. The lead was short-lived, as the Indians came back to score the next four points to tie the game at 64-64 with 1:25 to play.
Lowry took the advantage for good with a free throw by Herrera and Sierra Thiede put the Lady Bucks up 67-64 with 55 seconds to go. Elko made two free throws of its own with 45 seconds to go, but Waller made 1-of-2 shots from the charity stripe to increase the margin to 68-66. With 1.4 seconds to play, Elko had a chance to tie or win, but Waller blocked a shot off an inbound play to secure the win.
"The girls persevered and pulled it out," Smith said. "It was a great win for us. Brooklyn scared me on that play. The way the game was called, I was afraid she was going to get called for a foul."
Waller led all scorers with 25 points, while Chelsea Herrera added 12 and Tiana Herrera 10. Hall contributed nine points, Cooper five, Mayo three and Emalee Brown and Thiede two each.
The coach praised Brown and Maria Hernandez, who came off the bench for their play in the three extra periods.
Lowry (11-1 overall, 6-1 Division I-A North) was at home this past weekend and split two games. The Lady Bucks defeated Fernley 39-18 on Jan. 10 but lost 38-28 to Churchill County on Saturday - the first loss of the season for the Lady Bucks.
Against Fernley, Lowry led 9-7 early in the second quarter, but went on a 22-4 run to end the third quarter to go in front 31-11. The Lady Bucks scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to complete the 29-4 spurt.
Ten players scored for Lowry, with Thiede leading the way with 10. Waller scored eight, Tiana Herrera, Celeste Esquivel and Chelsea Herrera each had four points, Haley Rolando, Kelsea Perkinson, Cooper and Mayo two each and Hall one.
Lowry and Churchill County were tied at 18 at halftime, when the Greenwave used a 13-4 run in the third quarter to build a nine-point lead.
Hall paced Lowry with 13 points, Chelsea Herrera and Thiede had four each, Waller three and Tiana Herrera and Cooper two each.
"It was a game I think we should have won," said the coach. "It was a bit of a wake-up call for us. When we got back to practice on Monday, you could see the change in our intensity."
Lowry returns to the floor Tuesday at 3 p.m. with a road trip to Spring Creek.[[In-content Ad]]
