WINNEMUCCA - With nothing more than pride to play for, the Lowry High School varsity girls basketball team closed out its season with two home wins against White Pine and West Wendover.
The Lady Bucks (17-6 overall, 6-4 Ruby Mountain League) defeated White Pine 41-27 on Friday and West Wendover 61-32 on Saturday afternoon. Despite having the second best overall record in the 3A, Lowry will miss out on the playoffs after finishing third in the Ruby Mountain pod for a second straight season.
"It is just the system that has been given to us," said LHS head coach Jack Smith. "A lot of teams would love to have won 17 games and that is still a pretty good season and I have to remember that. In any other league or state you are in the playoffs."
Playing on senior day, Lowry started slowly against West Wendover and after a close first quarter of play, the Lady Bucks pulled away.
The Lady Bucks put up the first six points of the game, four of those by Betsy Guerrero. The Wolverines came back to close the game to 8-7 on a 3-point field goal by Candy Roland, answering a field goal by Carli Evatz. Lowry began to stretch the advantage with two free throws by Julia Dufurrena and a pair of baskets by Angie Herrera and Guerrero to extend the gap to 14-9.
"We were a little slow out of the gate and they hung with us for a while," Smith said. "The senior girls were playing with a lot of emotion to start the game."
Roland hit her second 3-point shot of the game to bring West Wendover within two points at 14-12. It was all Lowry after that, going on an 11-2 run to grab its first double-digit lead of the day at 25-14. During that stretch Ere Higbee made four free throws and Madi Gonzalez, Dufurrena and Guerrero added baskets. Lowry scored the final nine points of the half, with five of those by Dufurrena to lead 34-26.
The Lady Bucks held the Wolverines to one field goal, another 3-point shot by Roland, widening the advantage to 52-22 after Evatz connected on a 3-point shot as time expired in the third quarter. Gonzalez scored six of Lowry's nine points in the final eight minutes of play, with Dufurrena hitting a 3-point field goal for the final outcome.
"They had trouble handling the press and we came out in the third quarter and made a little run at them," Smith said. "We had a lot of even scoring and we ended the season on a good note, especially for the seniors. I feel for them, missing out on the playoffs in the last two years. I felt if we were in a regional tournament we could cause problems."
The Lady Bucks had three players in double figures, led by Dufurrena with 15. The senior also had 10 rebounds to post a double-double in her final high school game. Fellow seniors Gonzalez and Guerrero each scored 12 in their last time on the floor. Herrera, also a senior, had eight points. Evatz added five, Higbee four and Taylor Johnson and Taylor Schwartz two each. Johnson is also a senior on the squad.
"It was really emotional in the locker room for the seniors," added the coach. "They played well tonight and I just wish they had a couple of more games left."
Lowry started quickly against White Pine, building an 11-2 lead in the first quarter before holding off a rally to earn the victory. Herrera and Dufurrena combined for all 11 of the points for the Lady Bucks.
White Pine outscored Lowry 16-15 in the second and third quarters to cut the deficit to eight points, but the Lady Bucks picked up 10 points from Dufurrena in the fourth quarter to expand the lead back to double figures. Lowry held on from there to earn the season sweep of White Pine.
Dufurrena led all scorers with 17 points. Gonzalez added eight, Guerrero and Herrera six each, Evatz three and Johnson one.[[In-content Ad]]
