WINNEMUCCA - The Winnemucca Junior High School eighth-grade girls basketball team continued its run toward a perfect season with six more wins in the past week.
The Warriors (16-0 overall) traveled to Battle Mountain on Friday, Sept. 27, and collected three victories in Tri-County play. Winnemucca defeated Battle Mountain 39-7, Pershing County 25-19 and McDermitt 36-24.
In the matchup with Battle Mountain, Winnemucca jumped out to a 17-4 advantage in the first quarter and increased the lead to 29-4 at halftime.
Warrior head coach Jack Smith said the team had a good warm-up and got out of the gate fast with almost all the girls scoring.
Winnemucca grabbed a 9-3 lead over Pershing County in the first quarter, but found itself in a fight the rest of the way
"The Lovelock games have turned in to battles," Smith said. "Lovelock came out and played really physical and it kind of shook us up a little bit. We tried to be physical back and the game got ugly and it got out of hand a little bit."
Leading 13-7 at halftime, Winnemucca pulled away with an 8-2 run in the third quarter and the Warriors held on for the victory from there.
"We did just enough in the third quarter to win the game," added the coach. "Physical games are just up Bailey (Sapien's) alley. She ended up with 12 points to lead all scorers."
Winnemucca used its press to race out to a 22-0 lead in the first quarter against McDermitt, with Kyllie Sappington scoring 10 of those points. She finished with 14 points, leading all scorers.
The Warriors led 24-9 at halftime and held off a late McDermitt run to earn the victory.
"McDermitt is physical and can hit 3-point shots," Smith said. "So, we kind of had to be careful as the game closed out."
Winnemucca was back out on the road this past Saturday in Dayton and defeated Dayton 44-10 and Silver Stage 39-10.
Against Dayton, Winnemucca jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter and increased the advantage to 33-4 at halftime. Smith credited the quick start for the win and said all the girls picked up a lot of minutes.
It was the same story against Silver Stage, with Winnemucca taking a 26-3 lead at halftime, including a 15-0 advantage after the first six minutes of play. Smith said Silver Stage was a little bit over matched but played hard and with heart.
Winnemucca had to wait until this past Tuesday to host its first game of the season and had to come from behind to beat Fallon 37-26. The Greenwave used a 16-4 run in the second quarter to lead 18-11 at halftime.
"This was the third time playing Fallon and it's hard to beat a good team three times," Smith said. "In warm-ups we looked like a team that has won too many games in a row and Fallon looked mad. Fallon outplayed us in every aspect of the game in the second quarter. If we were not turning the ball over, we were getting our shot blocked."
The Warriors began their comeback in the third quarter with a 13-2 run to reclaim the lead at 24-20 and never trailed again. Winnemucca pulled away with a 13-6 run in the fourth quarter to stay undefeated on the season.
Alyssa Kuskie had seven points in the fourth quarter and finished with 16 to lead all scorers. The coach also praised the play of Sappington and Sapien.
"There is no quit in this group," Smith said. "We regrouped at halftime and showed the heart of a champion in the second half comeback. This is a special group in many ways. One of those ways is that every player knows her role on the team and embraces her role. These 12 players make the perfect team, I'm proud to coach them."
Winnemucca closes out its season at home on Saturday with the Tri-County championship, beginning at 9 a.m.
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