WINNEMUCCA - The winners of the last four Division I-A state championships were back on the floor Tuesday night in Winnemucca as the Lowry High School varsity girls basketball team took on Spring Creek.
The Lady Bucks beat the Spartans in the 2010 state title game, while Spring Creek has won championships in 2009 (against Lowry), 2011 and 2012.
Defense was the name of the game in the latest meeting, with the teams combining for just 27 points in the first half. Spring Creek held Lowry to seven points in the first 16 minutes of play en route to a 48-30 victory.
"When you score seven points you are not going to beat many teams, especially the defending state champions," said LHS head coach Jack Smith. "We just could not make a shot in the first half. I thought we did a good job defensively against them to start the game. They were able to score a few points of the press and caused us some problems."
The Lady Bucks (5-12 overall, 3-5 Division I-A, 0-3 Ruby Mountain) jumped out to a 4-1 lead off of baskets by Taylor Schwartz and Payton Naveran, but hit a cold streak the rest of the half.
Lowry went scoreless for the final four minutes of the first quarter as Spring Creek scored the final 12 points to take a 13-4 advantage. The Lady Bucks' only field goal of the second quarter came on a shot by Naveran with 5:24 to play in the half. Carli Evatz added a free throw in the second period for the only other point.
The Spartans scored seven of the first nine points of the third quarter in a 90 second span, forcing the Lady Bucks to call a timeout trailing 27-9.
Schwartz scored four of her seven points in the third quarter and Alyssa Dendary connected on a 3-point field goal to cut the deficit to 14 points, at 31-17. That was as close as the Lady Bucks got as the Spartans went on a 9-0 run that continued into the fourth quarter to lead 40-19.
Lowry cut the Spring Creek lead to 16 points in the fourth quarter on two baskets by Evatz and buckets by Kylee McClellan and Schwartz.
"We came out and played better in the second half," Smith said. "We ran our offense a little better and hit some shots. Spring Creek is a pretty good team. Their size hurt us tonight. I think they are pretty comparable to Elko."
Evatz led Lowry with eight points; Schwartz added seven, Naveran six, Dendary five and McClellan four.
"I was pleased with the effort of the girls," Smith said. "They never got down and quit. It was just the mental grind of missing shots. The girls want to get better in practice and look forward to playing the next game. It's a fun group to coach."
The Lady Bucks close out the first half of their Ruby Mountain schedule on the road this weekend. Lowry travels to Ely tonight to face White Pine at 6 p.m. and West Wendover on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Lowry is back on the road Tuesday to play Elko at 6 p.m. in a Division I-A matchup. There is also a chance the two rival schools might play in the opening round of the playoffs.
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