BATTLE MOUNTAIN - The Battle Mountain High School varsity boys basketball team finished third in its own Longhorn Invitation this past weekend.
The Longhorns (9-2) won their opening game of the tournament 60-49 over Carlin on Friday morning but lost later that night 50-47 to Owyhee in the semifinals. Battle Mountain came back on Saturday to knock off Wells 67-52 to earn third place.
"We are still struggling to put an entire game of intensity together," said BMHS head coach Roger Wallock. "We seem to always have streaks of laziness then we snap out of the funk and play extremely aggressive."
In the win over Carlin, Battle Mountain had three players score in double figures, led by Marco Rangel with 20. The senior added eight rebounds, four steals and three blocks. Kyle Bryant added 16 points and four assists, and James Willingham had 13 points. Daniel Itza and Ryan Salazar finished with five and four assists, respectively.
Against Owyhee Rangel and Bryant each had double-doubles, with Rangel scoring 10 points and grabbing 20 rebounds, while Bryant had 11 points and 11 boards. Salazar scored 11 points in the game, Itza ended with six assists and Bryant and Rangel had four assists and three steals, respectively.
Battle Mountain trailed Wells 14-10 after a quarter of play but responded in the second and third quarters by outscoring the Leopards 42-14, including a 21-5 spurt in the second period.
Salazar led the Longhorns with 19 points and Itza added 15. Rangel grabbed 12 rebounds to go with six blocks and four assists, while Jeremy Price picked up six assists and four steals.
Battle Mountain is back on the floor on Thursday, Dec. 29, when it travels to Lovelock to face Pershing County at 4:30 p.m. The Longhorns follow that with three consecutive home games against Lahontan League foes Yerington (Jan. 6), Rite of Passage (Jan. 7) and Pershing County (Jan. 13).
"We are now entering the tough part of our season and we cannot afford to take any moments off during any of the upcoming games if we want to compete," Wallock said.
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