LOVELOCK - Using a suffocating pressure defense, Pershing County ran out to a 20-point first quarter lead over the Battle Mountain High School varsity girls basketball team on its way to a 73-24 win in Lovelock last Thursday.
The Lady Longhorns (8-4) trailed by three points midway through the first quarter but watched as the defending 2A state champions scored the next 17 points and never looked back.
"It is just a matter of us handling the pressure and we didn't do that tonight," said BMHS head coach Paul Tremayne. "If you can't break the pressure you are going to be in deep trouble. We are going to have to break the press on a regular basis down the road. We did it a few times tonight and we got some easy baskets but for the most part we could not handle Lovelock's pressure."
Pershing County scored the first six points of the game in less than a minute, when Kelsey Kroll and Julie Holland made baskets for Battle Mountain to keep the deficit at 7-4 midway through the period. However, Holland's basket off the press break was the last for the Lady Longhorns in the opening eight minutes of play. The Mustangs reeled off 17 consecutive points, including four in a five-second stretch to end the quarter.
Pershing County used a 7-0 run in the second quarter to open the margin to 31-6 with three minutes left in the half and led by as many as 29 points at 39-10. Pooja Bhakta connected on a 3-point field goal late in the first half for Battle Mountain, ending an 8-2 spurt by Pershing County.
After Abbie Mikelson scored the opening basket of the second half, the Mustangs scored 12 of the next 14 points to increase their advantage to 53-17. Pershing County eventually led 58-19 at the end of the third quarter and 50 seconds into the fourth quarter the game was played with a running clock under the new NIAA mercy rule.
"That is the team you are going to have to beat in this league," Tremayne said. "The one thing is this is probably as good as they are going to be and hopefully we continue to improve. I am not going to use the sophomore card for us. We have five sophomores but that is not going to be an excuse. We have some upperclassmen that can play. We just have to get better and they have a good team."
Hannah Hale paced Battle Mountain with six points; Bhakta added five, Amber Scovil and Mikelson four each, Kroll three and Holland two.
Battle Mountain returns home for just one game this week on Friday against Yerington at 6 p.m. The Lady Longhorns host Pershing County on Friday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. and travel to Silver Stage on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 3 p.m. to finish their crossover games for the season.
"Yerington will be a good test for us and we should be able to get a win at Silver Stage," Tremayne said. "We need a couple of wins because we start out with three pretty good teams in Elko, Lowry and Spring Creek in our league."
[[In-content Ad]]
