SPRING CREEK - The Lowry girls basketball team has plenty of pride, but even it couldn't keep up with the Lady Spartans on Wednesday.
A week after running Lowry out of its home building, the Spring Creek girls did the exact same thing, using a 20-0 run in the second half to rout Lowry 57-21 in the first round of the 2013 Northern I-A regional tournament.
"It was good, especially to come out the beginning of the first quarter (like we did). I didn't know what to expect after two great practices, but that loss (to Elko) was still fresh in their minds," Spring Creek coach Holly Miller said. "It felt like (last week)."
Lowry, as par with its tradition, came out seemingly ready to give Spring Creek a game by whatever means possible.
After falling behind 7-0, the Lady Buckaroos tried to stall Spring Creek's running game with a stall of their own.
Lowry held on to the ball for nearly 2 minutes in the first quarter, but Spring Creek got the ball back on a turnover and finished the quarter on a 9-2 run with Lowry players pleading with their teammates to "slow it down."
By the fourth quarter, the Buckaroos had switched to saying "play hard to the end."
After a back-and-forth second quarter, Spring Creek put the finishing touches on the game with a 20-0 run to start the third.
"We try to work really hard on our third quarter, and I think all the practice paid off," Spring Creek senior Arrayana Edwards said.
Edwards did most of the damage in those first and third quarter runs.
She started the game with nine of the first 11 points for the Lady Spartans and added eight more in the third quarter. She finished with a game-high 20 points.
"It was just an accident (most of my scoring was in those two quarter). I didn't intentionally save them for something," said a smiling Edwards.
By the early fourth quarter, another Edwards' basket gave Spring Creek a 55-14 to start the mercy rule.
It was the second time in two weeks Spring Creek enacted the 40-point mercy rule on Lowry, but only the second time Lowry coach Jack Smith has lost by mercy rule in the last six years.
"Dang it, they made some tough shots on the break," Smith said. "Scoring for them was real easy and scoring for us was difficult."
Carli Evatz, Kylee McClellan, Alyssa Dendary and Taylor Schwartz all had four points to lead the Buckaroos.
After getting behind early, Lowry looked like it was going to give Spring Creek a game after starting the second quarter on a 4-0 run and sticking within a 10-point striking distance.
However, a Maddy Merschel putback with a couple seconds left in the half gave Spring Creek a 16-point lead and the momentum, which it carried into the third.
"I told the girls at halftime' 'we can't let up. If we get a lead, no matter how big, we have to extend it. If Lowry goes on a run we have to try to stop the bleeding and then go on a run of our own,'" Miller said.
Along with Edwards, fellow senior Madi Estes chipped in double-digit points with 13 for Spring Creek.
The Lady Spartans now own a seven-game winning streak against the Lady Buckaroos. The streak started after Spring Creek was upset by Lowry in the 2010 state championship game.
Lowry finishes the year at 8-17 overall. Spring Creek picked up its 20th win of the season and is 20-3 overall.
Smith said it was a tough way for his team to end the season, but said he had "tears in his eyes" in the locker room, because of the character of his squad.
"We never splintered," he said.
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