The first half of the basketball season has wrapped up in the Division I-A North and Division IV East for Lowry High School and McDermitt.
After losing a strong senior class, the Lady Bulldogs are surprising some around Nevada and sit undefeated with Eureka in league play.
Coach Jaimi Wilkinson has done great things with this bunch of young girls. Their is just one senior on the roster of eight and the rest are freshmen and sophomores. There was thoughts of some bumps in the road at the beginning of the year but McDermitt has quieted those questions.
One of the top games in northern Nevada takes place Friday as McDermitt hosts Eureka at 6 p.m. The Vandals are the defending state champions but the Lady Bulldogs won last year in Eureka. It should be a fun night on the Oregon/Nevada border. This could be the first of many match-ups in the next year.
Austin Mayo has done an equally nice job with the McDermitt boys. The Bulldogs won just once in league play in the 2012-13 season and were victorious in just three games overall.
The Bulldogs have doubled that total and stand at 2-1 in the Division IV East. They could be easily 3-0 but let a game with Jackpot get away. Mayo has the help of two former McDermitt players in Hyland Wilkinson and Jake Kershner. Both were part of winning teams at the school and are helping to return the program to prominence.
This group of players continue to mesh well and a spot in the playoffs is not out of the question. If you get a chance to see McDermitt, go watch these kids.
The Lowry girls basketball team picked up a huge victory at Spring Creek on Tuesday. The Lady Bucks and Spartans are two of the biggest rivals in the state and the teams once played in the state championship six consecutive years.
The win at Spring Creek was the first for Lowry since the 2010 state title contest. I am still trying to figure out the previous time Lowry won at Spring Creek. For those historians it is around the late 1990s or early 2000s.
The Lady Bucks are 5-3 in the Division I-A North but could easily be 7-1. In the opening week of league play, Lowry gave up a double-digit lead to South Tahoe and lost in overtime. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Lady Bucks had Churchill County on the ropes but gave up a late advantage to the Greenwave.
Lowry will probably be in a battle for the final playoff spot with Truckee and South Tahoe. The Lady Bucks will look to enact some revenge against the Vikings on Saturday.
Chelsea Cabatbat and her staff have worked wonders with this group. It is young with two sophomores and two seniors. The biggest thing for this group is to cut down on turnovers. If they can do that, some of those losses will turn into wins.
The Division I-A North boys league has played like many would thought - Elko and Lowry - and everyone else. The two rivals played a great game last week in Elko. The game was tied late in the third quarter, when the Indians used a 3-point field goal to go on a 14-0 run and deflate the Buckaroos.
Strangely, Lowry and Elko would be leading the Division I North as well. Neither school has lost to a larger school in northern Nevada. The only problem for the two teams is trying to get up to play other schools in the league. Nothing against the other teams but they are not in the same category as Lowry and Elko. Of course, they can be beat on any given night.
The problem last year when the two rivals went to Las Vegas, they did not have strong competition from the north. Desert Pines and Clark, being in Las Vegas, had the ability to play different schools.
The Buckaroos and Indians have beefed up their schedule in hopes of advancing to the state title game. For those interested, the two play in Winnemucca on Feb. 15.
The Lowry wrestlers look poised to win a sixth consecutive state title. The Buckaroos won the Kiwanis Invitational in Spring Creek by nearly 100 points last weekend.
The Buckaroos have the opportunity to approach 100 straight dual victories as well. The record is 107 by Yerington. As coach John Brooks noted, "We haven't won anything yet" but this group is still pretty good. They are a humble bunch that let their wrestling due the talking.
Some ask what is the secret to the success. That one is pretty easy: They work their butts off.
Come the end of February we will see if Lowry is hoisting another trophy in Primm.
Winnemucca Publishing sports editor Tony Erquiaga can be reached via email at t.erquiaga@winnemuccapublishing.net.[[In-content Ad]]
