There are certain times of the year when a team needs to look at itself and ask, "where do we go from here?"
After suffering a last-second 43-40 loss to Spring Creek on Friday night in Winnemucca, the Lowry High School boys basketball team may be in that position right now. The Buckaroos have lost two games in a row, but remain tied for second place in the Division I-A North.
"The bottom line is we got out-played, out-hustled and out -coached," said LHS coach Chad Peters. "If we don't do things fundamentally like we need to, we are going to be in trouble. We get to a point to where we forget what we are doing well or what we did well to get at that point. I love my kids, even when we are not playing well. I came down at halftime and had nothing positive to say and had to go upstairs and think. I am not going to yell at them, because they don't deserve that. Everything I would say were things we have spoken about time after time after time. We had certain guys repeating certain things over and over again."
Lowry grabbed an early lead in the first quarter behind four points from Nathan Lutzow and a 3-point field goal from Christian Gray. The Buckaroos maintained a four-point lead at 15-11 in the second quarter, behind two free throws from Jared Taylor, only to see Spring Creek come back with five consecutive points to go in front by a point.
The back-and-forth battle continued to the end of the half, with Lowry going up by two points on a 3-point field goal by Gray, The Spartans fired back with a 3-pointer of their own at the buzzer of the second quarter to trail 22-21.
With a changed lineup in the third quarter, Sterling Dennis and Lutzow provided a spark for the Buckaroos, scoring all nine points in the period. The lead changed hands five times in the quarter, with Lowry leading 30-28 going in to the final eight minutes.
"I was happy with the way the five guys that started the third quarter played," Peters said. "We wanted to change things up and those guys came out and gave me the best they had and they played hard."
The Spartans jumped ahead in the fourth quarter by three points, when the Buckaroos tied the game on a 3-point play by Guerrero, who scored off an inbound play. Moments later, Jacob Von Aspern knocked down a baseline jump shot following a block by Lutzow to put Lowry up 39-37 with three minutes to play.
The Buckaroos extended their lead to 40-37 with 2:43 to play on a free throw by Lutzow. Those turned out to be the final points for Lowry.
A crucial play late in the game happened when Guerrero appeared to score on a layup and Spring Creek was called for a foul at the same time. On Guerrero's drive to the basket, Taylor was called for an illegal screen at the same time and the basket was waived off.
The Spartans came back to tie the game at 40-40 and Lowry had a chance to go in front with a free throw but missed with 30 seconds to play.
After almost throwing the ball away in the final seconds, Spring Creek was able to call a timeout to set up a last-second shot. The Spartans' Jaysen Woodland took in the inbound pass and dribbled to the top of the circle and hit a 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds to play to give Spring Creek a 43-40 lead.
The Buckaroos had one last chance to tie the game but a 27-foot shot by Guerrero bounced off the rim as time expired.
Lutzow, Guerrero and Gray each scored eight points to lead the Buckaroos. Von Aspern and Dennis scored six apiece and Taylor had four.
Lowry heads out on the road this weekend to face South Tahoe on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Dayton on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
"We need to get better and that started on Saturday," Peters said. "I am a teacher and a coach. They are not getting the way I am teaching right now. I need to find a different way. Whether it's tactics, playing time or whatever. I am not going to scream and yell. They are good kids and I love them. There is not a spiteful kid among them and not one of them that would ruin the season. Bottom line, I am doing a horrible job as a coach right now. I need to fix the way I am doing things. Hopefully, I am a good enough coach to find a way to get them to understand where I want them to be. I need to find new ways to teach. This team is different than any other I have ever coached. We are still 6-2 and there is no time to panic. We have the toughest game of our schedule ahead of us on Friday. We are going to work and it's all on me right now."
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