WINNEMUCCA - The Lowry High School junior varsity girls basketball team turned in one of its most impressive victories of the year against one of its biggest rivals on Tuesday night in Winnemucca.
The Lady Bucks (13-4 overall, 7-1 Division I-A, 2-1 Ruby Mountain) raced out to a 21-2 advantage and never looked back in the 51-33 win over the Spring Creek.
"That is one of the best games we have played all year," said LHS head coach Chelsea Cabatbat. "We are really coming together and the girls are playing hard. We have been throwing in different looks in practice. The one thing about this team is whatever you tell them, they do it. They listen and understand and it really showed today. We were able to get into different looks. Every single one of them played hard."
Leading 5-2 two minutes into the contest, the Lady Bucks turned up the defensive pressure, forcing a number of turnovers by the Spartans. Lowry's tenacious play forced Spring Creek to call two timeouts in the first quarter.
Sierra Thiede scored six points in the opening eight minutes of play and Jillian Albright, Jasmine Anicker and Dani Ricker each contributed four to give Lowry a 23-5 lead.
"It seemed like we could not do anything wrong in the first quarter," Cabatbat said. "Everything came together and we were that on. It all comes down to them putting the time in at practice and the will to get better. They want to do well for their coaches."
Spring Creek went to the free throw line 10 times in the second quarter but was only able to cut the deficit by a point at halftime. Lowry continued to pick up contributions from a number of players as Katie Tyree added three points in the second period. Chelsea Herrera, Thiede, Anicker and Albright all had baskets in the period as well.
The Spartans trimmed the Lady Bucks' lead to 11 points late in the third quarter, when Thiede and Herrera hit back-to-back shots to push the advantage back to 15 points, at 42-27 for Lowry.
Anicker made the opening bucket of the fourth quarter and Herrera added one free throw to give Lowry an 18-point lead. The Lady Bucks were not challenged from that point on.
Thiede led Lowry with 10 points, while Anicker added eight.
"I am so proud of Jasmine." added the coach. "She has come such a long way from the start of the season. If you tell her anything, she does it. She just wants to get better. She was all over the place tonight. She does the little things that help you out."
Herrera added six points for Lowry; Ricker had six, Hayley Hall four, Tyree three and Estefany Espinoza two.
Lowry begins a three-game road trip today at White Pine with a 3 p.m. start. The Lady Bucks move on to West Wendover on Saturday for an 11 a.m. tipoff. Lowry is back on Interstate 80 on Tuesday to play Elko at 3 p.m. The Indians are the only school to beat the Lady Bucks in league play.
"I am happy to see their hard work is paying off," Cabatbat said. "You can see the improvement. We are going to try to see if we can avenge that loss to Elko."
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