MCDERMITT - Not much went wrong for the McDermitt High School girls basketball team as it hosted Round Mountain on Tuesday afternoon.
The Lady Bulldogs (4-2) seemed not to miss a shot and played hard-nosed defense in a 68-22 win over the Knights of the Division IV South.
"We came out and played pretty good," said MHS head coach Jaimi Wilkinson. "I thought we did a great job with our matchup zone. We never really had to run an offense but the girls shot the ball well tonight."
Round Mountain did not have an answer for McDermitt's Andrea Smart, who outscored the Knights by herself. The freshman scored 24 points on four 3-point field goals, including 19 points by halftime.
"Like I have said before, my freshmen don't play like they are freshmen," Wilkinson said. "Andrea has a great shooting touch and my freshmen aren't afraid to fire up the ball."
McDermitt scored the first 11 points of the game - five of those by Smart, four by Staheli Wilkinson and two more by Sharon Sherburn.
The Knights did not make a field goal until 63 seconds were left in the first quarter. By that time, the Lady Bulldogs had built a 26-1 advantage.
Round Mountain scored the final two points of the opening quarter and the first basket of the second period to close within 21 points, but that was as close as the Knights got.
McDermitt led 43-12 at halftime and scored the first 12 points of the second half to push the advantage past the NIAA 40-point mercy rule at 55-12. The game was played with a running clock for the final 14 minutes.
Lydia Northrup and Wilkinson added 16 and 12 points, respectively, for the Lady Bulldogs. Va Draunidalo and Sherburn each had six points and Cheyenne Urban and Deandra Dave had two points apiece.
"It was a good game for us after coming off two tough games over the weekend," Wilkinson said. "All the girls picked up quite a bit of playing time."
McDermitt took part in the Longhorn Invitational last weekend in Battle Mountain and came away with one win in three games. The Lady Bulldogs defeated Owyhee 66-22 on Friday, Dec. 14. McDermitt played twice on Saturday, losing 47-43 to White Pine and 51-48 to host Battle Mountain.
"Those were games that we needed to play," said the coach. "The games with White Pine and Battle Mountain were very physical. Playing those teams will make us better and we had a chance to win them both."
Four players for McDermitt scored in double figures against Owyhee as the Lady Bulldogs built a 45-9 lead at halftime. The Braves did not score more than seven points in any quarter.
McDermitt built a 60-15 advantage in the third quarter to put the game into a running clock.
Sherburn led all scorers with 16 points, with Northrup adding 15, Wilkinson 14 and Smart 13. Dave contributed five points, Draunidalo two and Urban one.
McDermitt had the tough task of playing White Pine, the Division III state runner-up from a year ago, in its first game on Saturday. The Lady Bulldogs gave the Bobcats a run for their money, coming up four points short.
"I was tickled with my girls' performance," Wilkinson said. "They played right with the Division III state runner-up. We held their best scorer to eight points."
White Pine held a slim one-point lead, 13-12 after a quarter of play and the game continued to be close from there. The Bobcats slowly stretched the margin to four points and made that hold up in the final eight minutes of play.
Sherburn shined for McDermitt with 12 points and 18 rebounds, while Wilkinson added 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals.
Northrup and Smart each scored seven points and Dave and Draunidalo had two points apiece.
McDermitt was back on the floor with little rest to take on Battle Mountain. The Longhorns grabbed an early two-point lead after a quarter of play, and like the matchup with White Pine, the Lady Bulldogs were able to stay basket for basket with the Longhorns.
"We were a little sluggish and tired in the first half," added the coach. "We were basically playing back-to-back games."
Smart collected a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Wilkinson added 19 points, eight assists, three rebounds and two steals. Northrup also reached double figures with 12 points to go with three rebounds and two steals. Sherburn and Draunidalo each had four points.
McDermitt began play in the Crane (Ore.) Invitational on Thursday against Spray (Ore.) and results were not available at press time. The Lady Bulldogs face Adrian (Ore.) today at 2 p.m. and Crane on Saturday at 5 p.m.
"We will be heavily tested on the weekend," Wilkinson said. "We are playing a couple of small-school powerhouses in Oregon. I am anxious to see how we play this weekend."
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