At the start of the season, Lowry High School boys basketball coach Chad Peters said if his squad only won its two league games in December, he would be fine with that.
After last weekend, the Buckaroos have doubled that total, with Division I-A North play set to begin this weekend in Winnemucca. Lowry traveled to Reno last week for the Rail City Classic. The Buckaroos were the defending champions of the tourney and went 2-2 this year.
Lowry opened with Reno on Wednesday, Dec. 10, and lost 58-45 to the Huskies.
"They were an extremely tall team," said Peters. "They have three guys over 6 feet, 7 inches tall. They ran a 2-3 zone against us and we started out slow against them. We eventually did a nice job and got into the flow of the game. We missed a ton of layups and didn't shoot the ball well. Their big guys made us change our shot."
Reno claimed a 15-9 lead after a quarter of play and never trailed from there. The Huskies grew the advantage to double figures at 29-19 at halftime. The Buckaroos were able to cut the deficit to eight points at the start of the fourth quarter, but the Huskies pulled away with an 18-13 run.
"We were tentative against their zone," Peters said. "We don't promote a lot of outside shooting. We are not going to sit out there and fire up three's. We did a fairly nice job defensively. We tried some different things. These tournaments are for us to see what identity we have as a team. We are still missing two of our guys that will be big contributors."
Omar Guerrero paced the Buckaroos with 11 points, while Nate Lutzow added nine and Jared Taylor eight. Jacob Hales netted six points, Sterling Dennis five, Roberto Sanchez three, Thomas Schwartz two and Brian Shettler one.
Lowry faced Hug on Thursday, Dec. 11, and used a strong second and fourth quarter to knock off the Hawks 62-50.
"They are a sporadic team," added the coach. "They are not tall, but athletic and quick. They like to get up the floor. Sometimes you play to a teams potential. We would go in four or five minutes spurts where we played good and we went four or five minutes where we couldn't do anything right."
Lowry led 18-16 after the first quarter and increased the lead to 35-25 at halftime. The Buckaroos looked to have a comfortable gap over Hug, but the Hawks used a 17-8 spurt in the third quarter to cut the deficit to one point.
Lowry bounced back with a 19-8 run in the final eight minutes to secure the win over the Division I school.
Lutzow had a team-high 23 points, while Schwartz had 14 points and Guerrero added 12 for the Buckaroos.
"Thomas played one of his best basketball games in his high school career," Peters said. "He was very smart on offense and played good defense. What we get out of him on offense is a plus."
Taylor and Hales scored four points apiece, Sanchez added three and Dennis two.
Lowry (4-4) continued its stretch of playing Division I schools on Friday, Dec. 12, with a 59-52 loss to Reed. The Raiders raced out to a 26-11 lead in the first quarter and the Buckaroos had to play catch-up from there. Reed led 13-0 at one time.
"That was there first game with their football guys back," Peters said. "We were really down and they buried us. We did come back and did a nice job. Our effort was good, but we started flat. At that point, you either get beat by 30 or battle back."
Lowry outscored Reed 19-14 in the second quarter to cut the gap to 10 points and the Buckaroos held the Raiders scoreless for the first four minutes of the third quarter.
The Buckaroos continued to trim the deficit in to single digits and were within striking distance in the final minutes. However, Lowry was 2-for-11 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter and 8-for-18 for the game.
"We are actually a good free throw shooting team and that killed us," Peters said. "We did some good things."
Guerrero and Lutzow led Lowry with 16 points each. Taylor added seven, Sanchez six, Hales four, Schwartz two and Christian Gray one.
Lowry was playing shorthanded in its finale against McQueen on Saturday, with a handful of players taking the ACT. The Buckaroos did get Gray back after missing the first six games. The Buckaroos built a big lead, but had to hold on for a 56-50 win.
"We did some good things for the first three quarters," Peters said. "McQueen made a big run and we thought the tournament was over one quarter early and we have done enough. We were playing our eighth game in 10 days. We hit the wall mentally and physically. Not to make excuses for us, but I think we took a step backwards from where we played in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. Our mental focus was the worst it has been. The kids need to fix that. They need to take ownership to the mental part of the game."
Lowry led 12-11 after the first quarter, but that advantage grew to 45-28 at the start of the fourth quarter. McQueen went on a 22-11 run in the final eight minutes, but it was not enough to over take the Buckaroos.
Taylor (18), Guerrero (15) and Lutzow (12) combined for 45 of the 56 points. Dennis scored six, Hales and Gray two each and Schwartz one.
Lowry plays at home for the first time this year tonight against South Tahoe at 6 p.m. The Buckaroos are back on the floor Saturday to host Dayton at 2:30 p.m.
"Our biggest game of the year is South Tahoe," Peters said. "We are not worried about anyone else but them."[[In-content Ad]]
