Lady Bucks open league play with wins over Vikings, Dust Devils

Lowry travels to Reno this weekend

Lady Bucks open league play with wins over Vikings, Dust Devils

Lady Bucks open league play with wins over Vikings, Dust Devils

The Lowry High School girls basketball team prides itself as a group that gets after it on defense and wants to make it as miserable as possible for its opponents.

That was no different this weekend, as the Lady Bucks made their home debut to open Division I-A North action. What Lowry didn't expect is to be in foul trouble in both contests and watch as the other teams shot free throw after free throw.

In the long run, the Lady Bucks (2-0 Division I-A North, 4-3 overall) battled through to pick up two wins, beating South Tahoe 38-32 on Friday and Dayton 59-8 on Saturday.

"That is the team that we are," said LHS coach Chelsea Cabatbat. "We pride ourselves on defense. That is what we do. We are not going to change the way we play basketball."

When Lowry took on South Tahoe, the Lady Bucks were looking to avenge a loss the Vikings handed them to start league play a season ago in California. Lowry led from the start, but it was hard for either team to get in the flow of the game. A total of 61 free throws were shot and 51 fouls were called between both squads.

"It was one that we had to grind out," Cabatbat said. "It was just hard to get in a rhythm and we really never got in to our offense. We still found a way to get the job done."

Lowry grabbed a three-point lead after a quarter of play and slowly increased the advantage through the second and third quarters to 28-19. South Tahoe cut in to the lead in the final eight minutes, but could not get the margin under six points.

Both teams struggled from the foul line, as the Vikings were 8-of-24, while the Lady Bucks were 17-of-37.

"It was free throw game and that is how we had to win it," Cabatbat said. "It wasn't pretty, but we pulled through."

Alyssa Dendary paced Lowry with 12 points and was one rebound short of a double-double with nine rebounds. Jillian Albright added seven points, Jasmine Marchand five, Kylee McClellan, Payton Naveran and Meg Montero scored four each and Maddie Mayo had two.

Lowry had its best offensive night of the season in the win over Dayton, starting the game on a 17-0 run. Six of the points in the first quarter came off steals and layups by McClellan, who had two, and another by Albright. Dendary added a 3-point field goal midway through the quarter to increase the lead to 11-0 and Montero followed with back-to-baskets. Mayo closed out the first quarter scoring with a layup.

"It was a good night for us," Cabatbat said. "We were able to run our offense. We haven't been scoring and we needed to get our confidence up. We know that we can score."

Dayton's scoreless streak lasted 8 minutes, 20 seconds, before making a 3-point field goal to begin the second quarter. The Dust Devils made just two field goals on the day and netted all eight of their points in the second quarter.

Lowry led 22-8 in the second quarter and proceeded to end the game on a 37-0 run.

"We were in foul trouble again in the second quarter," said the coach. "We played five games in Reno and this was the first time were getting called for these fouls. We will keep playing hard. "

The Lady Bucks outscored the Dust Devils 20-0 in the third quarter, picking up seven points from McClellan, two baskets by Montero and a 3-point field goal by Albright.

The game went to a running clock in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter off a basket by Chelsea Herrera, who had six points in the contest.

"Maddie and Chelsea had a great little two-man game going," Cabatbat. "It was something we needed to see how our offense moves. We got the ball inside and that started to open the outside for us and we were able to hit some of those shots we have been missing. We were having fun and that's what I want to see from the girls."

Lowry doesn't get much of a Christmas break, as it will be on the floor for the McQueen Varsity Elite Tournament on Friday and Saturday in Reno.

The Lady Bucks will play Reed at noon on Friday and Northgate, Calif., at 4:30 p.m. The tournament goes into a bracket format on Saturday.

The tournament features a number of California and Nevada schools.

"The main thing from the weekend was to get two wins and we did that," Cabatbat said. "Now we can work on some things. This tournament will we good for us, before we start league play in January."[[In-content Ad]]