WINNEMUCCA - You can't blame the Lowry High School junior varsity girls basketball team if the excitement wasn't there for its Friday afternoon matchup with Battle Mountain in Winnemucca.
In their earlier meeting in January, the Lady Bucks defeated the Lady Longhorns by more than 30 points. In addition, Lowry was coming off with an emotional three-point overtime loss at Elko this past Wednesday and has practiced and played without its head coach for much of the week. Despite all that, the Lady Bucks managed to knock off the Lady Longhorns 43-24.
"It was just one of those days," said LHS head coach Chelsea Cabatbat, who made her return to the bench. "The emotions from the Elko game got the best of us. The girls came out and got a good win. It wasn't pretty. We did enough to get the job done. A lot of them stayed late to watch the other games in Elko and I have been sick all week and haven't been around them."
Chelsea Herrera and Jillian Albright each scored five points in the first quarter to propel Lowry to a 12-4 lead. Battle Mountain netted four consecutive points to close the gap to 12-8, but managed three points in the second period.
The Lady Bucks followed with a 9-0 run to increase the advantage to 21-8 after baskets by Herrera, Jasmine Anicker and Albright and a free throw by Sarah Smith.
Battle Mountain closed the gap to within 12 points, at 22-10 in the third quarter, but Lowry went on a 12-1 run to put the game out reach. Sierra Thiede, Albright, Herrera and Anicker accounted for all of the points.
Lowry was never threatened in the second half and led by as many as 23 points in the fourth quarter off a basket by Estefany Espinoza.
"You have to give Battle Mountain credit," Cabatbat said. "They have improved a ton since the last time we played them and they made us work hard today."
Herrera and Albright led Lowry with 12 and nine points, respectively. Thiede added six points, Katie Tyree five, Hayley Hall and Anicker four each, Espinoza two and Smith one.
Lowry (16-5 overall, 7-2 Division I-A North, 5-2 Ruby Mountain) looks to complete the season sweep of Spring Creek today as it faces its rival on the Spartans' home floor.
"Hopefully, we can get back into our regular routine and come back and play a tough game at Spring Creek," Cabatbat said. "We jumped out to a big lead the last time we played. It will be much tougher going up there and playing. I would still love to have a JV tournament at the end of the year because I think we have a team that can beat Elko and Spring Creek."
Lowry closes out its season this weekend at home with games against White Pine on Friday at 3 p.m. and Saturday versus West Wendover at 11 a.m.
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