WINNEMUCCA - It was the great unknown for the Lowry High School varsity girls basketball team as it opened its season this past weekend at the High Sierra Classic in Reno and Sparks.
With a new coach at the helm and just two seniors on the roster, the young Lady Bucks embarked on their first action of the year.
Lowry began the tournament on a high note with a 38-35 win over Union Mine (El Dorado, Calif.) on Thursday, Dec. 5, but three losses followed. Damonte Ranch knocked off Lowry 56-33 on Friday, Dec. 6, and the Lady Bucks lost 47-36 to Lassen (Susanville, Calif.) and 45-41 in overtime to Heritage (Littleton, Colo.) on Saturday.
"We have a lot of work to do," said LHS head coach Chelsea Cabatbat. "We (coaching staff) have thrown a lot at the girls in a short amount of time. We have taught the girls the system and now we have to break it down and work on fundamentals. It is a work in progress."
In the victory over Union Mine, Lowry trailed by five points with three minutes left in the game but was able to pull out the three-point victory.
"We called some plays late in the game and the girls were able to come out and execute them," Cabatbat said. "It was a very good win for us. That was the theme for us throughout the weekend. We turned it on in the fourth quarter when we were down and needed to. We have to find a way to play four solid quarters, instead of relying on a late run to save us. If we do that, we don't put ourselves in positions we were in all weekend."
The two schools traded the advantage during the game with Lowry leading by a point after the first eight minutes of play. The Lady Bucks increased their lead to three points at halftime, but saw that disappear as the Diamondbacks went on an 11-7 run in the third quarter to grab a one-point advantage. The Union Mine lead grew to five points in the fourth quarter, before Lowry made its comeback.
Alyssa Dendary paced the Lady Bucks with 12 points, while Payton Naveran and Kylee McClellan added eight and seven points, respectively. Naveran grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and McClellan had two assists.
Jillian Albright contributed six points, two rebounds, two assists and a steal and Alyssa Jones and Meg Montero scored three and two points, respectively.
On Friday, Dec. 6, Lowry played tough for a quarter against Damonte Ranch, trailing by three points, but the Mustangs used a 34-9 run in the second and third quarters to break the game open. The Lady Bucks had a rough day shooting and were 12-for-50 from the field.
"Damonte Ranch is a good team and they have one very good girl," said the coach. "She scored 23 points and they won by 23 points. We are pretty much a carbon copy of each other. Damonte Ranch runs the same thing we do on offense and defense. We just have to find a way to contain that one girl. We will see where we have improved in a week, when we see them on Saturday. We have to get our offense going better. We didn't shoot the ball well all weekend."
Montero scored a team-high eight points and Shelby McKinnon and Albright added five points apiece. Naveran chipped in four points to go with six rebounds, three blocks, one assist and one steal. Dani Ricker and Jones scored three points apiece, Taylor Schwartz and McClellan had two each and Jasmine Marchand one.
It was an early wake-up call for Lowry on Saturday with a 9 a.m. game against Lassen. The game was tied 8-8 after a quarter of play and the Grizzlies led by two points at halftime before stretching the advantage to seven points at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
The Lady Bucks had a balanced scoring attack with McClellan and Schwartz each finishing with eight points. Schwartz grabbed six rebounds, while McClellan had two rebounds, two assists and a steal. Albright added seven points, three steals and three rebounds and Naveran had six points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Jones scored three points and Dendary and McKinnon had two each.
Lowry was back on the floor late Saturday afternoon to finish up the tournament against Heritage. The Lady Bucks led the Eagles by two points after the first quarter but found themselves in a hole after Heritage went on a 27-13 run in the middle two quarters.
Trailing by 12 points at the start of the fourth quarter, Lowry went on a 15-3 run to send the game into overtime. However, the Lady Bucks ran out of steam in the extra period with the Eagles pulling away for the four-point win. Lowry hurt itself by going 6-for-16 from the free throw line and just 27 percent shooting from the field.
"Again, we made another nice comeback," Cabatbat said. "It was like time to get serious and we have to get something going. We were able to execute in the fourth quarter and before we knew it was a tie game and we are in overtime. We just ran out of gas at the end. It was our second game of the day and it was their second game, so no excuses."
Dendary led Lowry with 14 points, while Albright scored seven points and McKinnon six. Schwartz added five points and Naveran and McClellan four each.
Lowry makes its home debut on Saturday against Damonte Ranch at 2 p.m.
"It was our first time out and there were some nerves," Cabatbat said. "This was the first time we played together. We will continue to get better."
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