Even though it was a couple of days later than expected, the Lowry High School girls basketball team finished off its slate of home games on Tuesday night against Fernley.
The game was originally set for last Friday, but strong winds and low visibility prevented the Vaqueros from traveling to Winnemucca. The move did not affect the Lady Bucks, who continued their march to the postseason with a 61-25 win. Lowry has now won 14 games in a row, dating back to December.
"It was a great win and total team effort for the last time on our home floor," said LHS coach Chelsea Cabatbat. "We got in early foul trouble with a couple of players, but we had other girls step up. That is the nice thing about this team, we go 12 deep. If someone is having an off night or we are in foul trouble, someone steps up for us."
Lowry (14-0 Division I-A North, 19-4 overall) picked up solid performances from Alyssa Jones, Jillian Albright and Alyssa Dendary. The trio combined for 15 of the Lady Bucks' 19 first-quarter points. Lowry led 19-4 before Fernley scored the final five points of the period.
"Kylee picked up a couple quick fouls and Alyssa (Jones) came off the bench and gave us some good minutes and sparked us."
Lowry extended the advantage to 27-9 in the second quarter after a steal and layup by Jones. Fernley did not make its first field goal of the second quarter until the 2:35 mark. The Vaqueros eventually cut the gap to 15 points at the break, after hitting a 3-point shot at the buzzer.
That was as close as Fernley got, as Lowry opened the second half on a 19-0 run on the strength of baskets by Albright and Dendary. The Vaqueros went scoreless for over six and half minutes, before scoring nine points in the final 90 seconds of the third quarter. That turned out to be all the points in the second half for Fernley.
Lowry outscored Fernley 11-0 in the fourth quarter, with six of those points coming from Hayley Hall.
"It was nice to see us getting contributions from different girls," Cabatbat said. "We are playing well right now, but we still have a few things to clean up. We did a lot of reaching on defense and were not moving our feet. We have to be quicker on our feet and get away from dumb fouls."
Lowry had three players in double figures, with Dendary leading the way with 16. Albright and Jones added 10 apiece and Payton Naveran had nine, Hall six, Jasmine Marchand four and Shelby McKinnon, Caitlynn Cooper and Kylee McClellan two each.
Lowry closes out the regular season this weekend in Elko County. The Lady Bucks take on Spring Creek tonight at 6 p.m. and Elko on Saturday at 1 p.m. If Lowry beats Spring Creek, it will clinch the No. 1 seed for the Division I-A North Regional Championships. The Lady Bucks can be no worse than the No. 2 seed. Churchill County has clinched the No. 3 seed and South Tahoe and Spring Creek are battling for the final playoff set.
"It's a big weekend for us and we have things to work on," Cabatbat said. "We are starting to peak at the right time of the year. Our focus is on Spring Creek and we are not taking anything for granted. We have to be ready to play."
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