SPARKS - Perhaps the Lowry boys basketball team would like to petition to move to the Division I North this season.
The Buckaroos are undefeated against its counterparts in the largest division in northern Nevada, including wins over Reno, Carson, McQueen and Damonte Ranch.
Lowry defeated Reed 65-46 at the Rail City Classic in December and was back in Sparks on Saturday to face the Raiders. The second meeting was much closer as the Buckaroos overcame a five-point deficit with two minutes to play and beat the Raiders 55-53. Reed came into the game 7-0 in the Division I North and is now 14-4 overall. Two of those losses are to Lowry.
"I was very impressed with how we played in the final two minutes," said LHS coach Chad Peters. "We could have easily bagged it like we did in Elko. We had a lot of excuses to bag it. Calvin (Connors) was not here, Garrett (Naveran) fouled out. I thought we did a nice job of spacing the floor when we needed to. Each team was missing their top guys. You can make excuses all you want. We put five guys on the floor and they put their five on the floor. You have to be able to win and we did that."
The matchup featured a number of runs in the contest, the final one coming from the Buckaroos, who improved to 15-2 on the season.
After Reed's Alonzo Vega hit a 3-pointer with 2:04 left in the game that put the Raiders in front 51-46, it was all Lowry as the Buckaroos finished the game on a 9-2 run. Vega scored a game-high 30 points.
Josh Watterson began the spurt with a 3-point field goal and after a missed free throw by Reed, Delane Black went coast to coast to tie the game at 51 with 1:25 to play. The next time down the floor, Black gave the Buckaroos the lead with a drive to the basket, but Vega tied the game at 53 with 48.7 seconds with two free throws.
After the free throws, Black finished the 9-2 run with a running jumper in the paint to put Lowry in front 55-53 with 19 seconds to go. Reed called a timeout after the bucket and drew up a play for a shot in the corner. However, Lowry knew what was coming from Reed and the Buckaroos forced the Raiders to take an off-balanced shot that missed the basket.
"Delane played his best game at Lowry so far," Peters said. "He is starting to play well. In addition to his scoring, he played good defense today."
The Raiders held a six-point lead in the first quarter and five-point leads in the second, third and fourth quarter but trailed at the end of each period.
Reed began an 8-0 run in the first quarter to overcome a 6-4 deficit, but Lowry countered with a 7-0 burst to close out the period to lead 13-12. Tytus Millikan started the spurt with a 3-pointer and Christian Gray and Black added buckets.
The Raiders built a five-point advantage at 20-15 in the second quarter only to see the Buckaroos score the final six points of the first half, including a put back shot at the buzzer by Dusty Bryan after a scramble for a loose ball.
Lowry found itself in foul trouble 90 seconds into the third quarter as Naveran was called for his third foul. He eventually fouled out in the fourth quarter.
Reed jumped out to a 31-26 lead with 2:14 left in the third. After a boisterous Buckaroo huddle in a timeout, Lowry closed out the period on a 12-2 run to go back in front 36-33.
"We were just letting them go to the right wherever they wanted to," said the coach. "We have to make guys go to their left. If we make Reed go to their left, they are going to have troubles. We did a better job of that and I felt our defensive effort was better at the end. All the things we talked about in timeouts, the kids put to work on the floor. It was a Saturday game that really means nothing and we could have come out and pouted after losing to Elko. We could have laid an egg and we didn't."
Black finished with a team-high 15 points, while Bryan and Watterson joined him in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Millikan added seven points, Naveran six and Gray four.
Lowry is back on the road tonight at Spring Creek at 7:30 p.m. to close out the first half of the Division I-A schedule. The Buckaroos return to their home floor Friday and Saturday to play Dayton and South Tahoe at 7:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., respectively.
"We are in the middle of a tough five-game stretch," Peters said. "We went to Elko and Reed and go to Spring Creek on Tuesday. We come back home for Dayton and South Tahoe. Looking at the start of the year at those five games and if we won four of those we would be in good shape and I would be pleased."[[In-content Ad]]
