As the regular season nears an end in the next couple of weeks, it appears the Lowry High School boys basketball team is finding its way as the playoffs near.
The Buckaroos extended their win streak to four games after beating Sparks 55-32 on Friday night and Truckee 49-37 on Saturday. Lowry sits in sole possession of second place in the Division I-A North at 10-2, after South Tahoe upset Spring Creek on Saturday 44-24. Lowry is now 15-7 overall.
"We are getting there," said LHS coach Chad Peters. "We are playing good defense right and now and we (coaches) have been pushing that. We got to score more, but can't let up at one end to make up for the other. But, if we are allowing teams 32 and 37 points, we are going to win a lot games."
Against Sparks, Lowry scored the final eight points of the first quarter, all of those coming from Omar Guerrero. Guerrero had a season-high 22 points, which include 5-of-10 shooting from the 3-point line. The junior also had seven rebounds, two assists and a block.
"If Omar can do that on a consistent basis, he will be tough to stop," Peters said. He was 50 percent across the board on his shooting. If you are 30 percent form the 3-point line, you are OK. He also had some big rebounds for us. He attacked the zone zone and played well. Christian (Gray) played well last week and had big numbers. Teams see that and concentrate on him. That leaves room for Omar to step up or Nathan (Lutzow) to step up. Whoever it is, someone has a chance to step up for us."
Sparks closed the gap to 17-12 late in the second quarter, but Gray answered with a 3-pointer and Lutzow added two baskets to give Lowry a 24-14 lead at halftime.
Lowry's post players (Chris Tyree, Garrett Naveran and Lutzow) provided the early punch in the third quarter with baskets to give the Buckaroos a 32-20 advantage. After scoring inside, Lowry went back to Guerrero, who knocked down three 3-pointers in the final minutes to put Lowry in front 41-25.
The Buckaroos' advantage never dropped below 16 points in the final eight minutes, as Lowry closed the game on a 14-8 run.
Lutzow and Gray also reached double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Lutzow also had seven rebounds. Naveran had four points, six rebounds and two assists and Sterling Dennis, Jacob Hales and Tyree each had two points.
"Everyone is starting to by in to their niche," Peters said. "Chris came in a gave us good minutes. He went in against a guy that was bigger and stronger than him, but he dug his heels in and got after it. I was proud of him. The guys are doing what we ask of them. When the kids are getting things done, we are a pretty good team."
On Saturday, Truckee slowed the start of the game to a crawl, running a four-corner offense. It turned out to be successful for as while, as the Wolverines built a 7-0 lead. The Buckaroos went scoreless for the first five minutes of the game. Guerrero gave Lowry its first bucket at the 2:56 mark and the Buckaroos trailed 13-5 after a quarter of action.
"That was smart by them," Peters said. "They didn't want to get in a running game, when you had a lead like that. I am not sure why they got out of it."
It was a reversal of fortunes in the second and third quarters, as Lowry outscored Truckee 40-9 to lead 45-22. The Wolverines did not make their first field goal of the second quarter, until there was 26 seconds left to play.
"It's another one of those games where if our guys take what the defense gives us, we will be fine," said the coach. If they don't guard Omar, he is going to knock down shots. Everyone will see what Omar did now and someone else has to step up and do things. We started some different kids today, because I wanted to reward them for their hard work. We had kids sick and I wanted to mix it up a bit. The kids are good with it."
Truckee finished the game on a 15-4 run, making the score closer than it appeared.
Guerrero (20) and Lutzow (14) combined for 34 of the 49 points. In addition, Lutzow had seven rebounds. Gray had nine points and Naveran six points and eight rebounds.
Lowry hosts Fernley on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and Churchill County at 2:30 p.m.
"We are at 10-2 and right where we want to be," Peters said. "We got some help from South Tahoe, but we have to care of our own business. Our most important game is Friday against Fernley and its Winterfest week and it's a scary week for me. There is so much going on the draws the attention from basketball. We will see how mentally strong we are. The routine will be different. If we can get a win against Fernley, I will be very pleased."
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