WINNEMUCCA - If there is one thing the Lowry High School junior varsity girls basketball team prides itself on, it's defense.
That was evident last weekend as the Lady Bucks opened their season at the Pershing County Tournament in Lovelock.
Lowry (3-0) picked up three wins, holding all of its opponents to 18 points or less. The Lady Bucks defeated Fernley 28-3 on Friday, Nov. 30, and swept a pair of matchups on Saturday, beating Yerington 35-14 and Pershing County 24-18.
"It was a good start and we will take the three wins," said LHS coach Chelsea Cabatbat. "The defensive effort was great in all three games. Pershing County played good defense against us and we had to rely on our offense. The girls came out after halftime and got some good looks on offense. They grabbed the lead and never looked back."
Lowry had little trouble with Fernley, holding the Vaqueros scoreless in the first 20 minutes of play. Maddie Mayo, Jillian Albright and Chelsea Herrera each had four points in the first half and each player outscored Fernley by themselves.
The Lady Bucks led 18-0 at halftime and continued to build on their advantage in the second half, outscoring the Vaqueros 10-2.
Herrera finished with a game-high eight points, Albright added six, Mayo four and Dani Ricker, Hailey Hall, Sierra Thiede, Estefany Espinoza and Jasmine Anicker each had two points.
It was much of the same in Lowry's first game on Saturday against Yerington. The Lady Bucks held the Lions to single digits in each half in the 21-point victory.
Herrera scored seven of her game-high 11 points in the first half as Lowry built a 13-point advantage. Anicker scored all six of her points in the second half, offsetting two 3-point field goals by Yerington.
Albright added five points for the Lady Bucks, Hall scored four, Ricker three and Kate Tyree, Mayo and Thiede all had two points apiece.
Lowry was forced to come from behind in its meeting with Pershing County, but used a strong second half to pull away from the Lady Mustangs.
Trailing by a point entering the second half, the Lady Bucks picked up six points each from Hall and Thiede to outscore the Mustangs 18-11.
"It was nice to see the girls make adjustments in just the first week of games," Cabatbat said. "We talked about running an offense at halftime. In our first two games we relied on our defense, which created a lot of offense for us. Against Pershing County we had to get into sets and run our offenses. Jillian did a great job of getting our post players the ball. I was really pleased with the effort of all the girls."
Thiede led Lowry with eight points; Hall had six, Herrera four and Mayo, Brianna Behrens and Tyree two each.
Lowry is back in action on Wednesday when the team travels to Reno to play North Valleys at 5:15 p.m. The Lady Bucks open Division I-A play on Friday, Dec. 14, at Sparks at 3 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 15, at Truckee with an 11 a.m. tipoff.
"We are a young team and definitely have stuff to work on and improve on," Cabatbat said. "It was good to get three wins the first time out. We have some time off before we play again and know exactly what we need to work on."
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