South 8, North 0.
That was the gory final total following the completion of the NIAA State Basketball Championships last week in Las Vegas.
For the first time since 1980, a northern team did not win a state basketball title and if things don't change, northern teams playing in Division I and I-A might not see a championship come their way for a long time.
The Smith Valley girls, a Division IV school, was the only North team to win a game at the state tournament.
Galena, the best the boys had to offer in Division I, trailed 19-0 to Bishop Gorman in the first quarter of the semifinals and was quickly sent back home, by the eventual state champion. Gorman featured two highly-recruited players by colleges on their squad and Galena never had a chance. Nice reward for the north champion. You always want to go into a game wanting to win, but deep down there are times you know there is no chance, unless you play the perfect game and an opponent such as Gorman forgets the directions to the arena.
Galena was not going to have much of a chance against Palo Verde and Canyon Springs as well.
Bishop Manogue's girls did its best to stay with Centennial, trailing just 29-24 at halftime, but Centennial had enough of that with a 29-8 run in the third quarter en route to a 78-49 victory. The Miners beat two-time defending champion Reno to get to the state tournament.
Could Bishop Manogue play with Bishop Gorman or Liberty? Who knows. They would have to play flawless to get a victory.
I know that championships go in cycles, just look at Reno winning the last two championships. However, those are teams that come through a school every 20 years or so.
Being from Winnemucca, there was one school you were trained to dislike and that was Elko. The Lowry/Elko rivalry is one of the best Nevada has to offer.
The Indians featured one of the best boys teams in the state for the last four years and has the little trophy (regional championship) to show for it. Lowry beat Elko in the final year (2012) before Armageddon hit Division I-A in 2013.
Welcome in Clark and Desert Pines, magnet schools in Las Vegas. When both schools dropped a level, their programs improved significantly. Being magnet schools, they can find players for their programs. With AAU programs in Las Vegas, those kids are finding their way to those magnet schools.
Elko reached the state final in 2014, losing to Clark after getting off to a horrible start. With a majority of team seniors this year, the Indians looked to have had a chance at winning the state title. However, Desert Pines snatched those hopes away with an overtime victory. Elko didn't play its best and I thought they were the better team than Desert Pines.
This might come back to bite me in the rear end, but Elko had one of those once and a generation squads and a hopes of a state title are all but gone in the future.
The Lowry boys had that same run and have played in the state tournament the last seven years, with one state championship. If you look back the Buckaroos probably should have won two more.
In the last three seasons, Lowry played Desert Pines and Clark (twice). The Buckaroos had some great teams, but had to play the perfect game to win. Lowry played well for two or three quarters, but got wore down late in the contests.
If you take away the last three years with the addition of the Las Vegas schools, I guarantee you those championships belong to Elko or Lowry.
The gap between the North and the South in girls basketball is not as bad, but we are headed that way. For the last 10 years or so, Spring Creek and Lowry have been the predominant powerhouses in girls basketball in northern Nevada. The Spartans are seeing a bit of a drop off in their program, but the future for the Lady Bucks is very bright. Elko is now finding its way back to the top as well.
Lowry and Elko found their way to the state tournament last weekend, with the Lady Bucks as the defending state champion. Lowry took on Faith Lutheran and was beaten by double figures. The Lady Bucks did not have their best game and the Crusaders were beatable.
Elko had the tough task of facing Spring Valley, who dropped from Division I to I-A this year. Last year Spring Valley won one game, but capped the impossible turnaround and went 30-1 this year and won the state title over Faith Lutheran.
I would say act like you have been there before, but Spring Valley had not. Watching its crowd, coaches and players was interesting to say the least. It was everything wrong with high school basketball in Nevada.
If you read message boards in newspapers, people are calling out Spring Valley for recruiting and getting players in to the program. This year Spring Valley had two freshmen standouts and more are on the way. If they were in Division I, would those kids be playing at that school?
The realignment talks were interesting last week, with a number of ideas being thrown out. However, the solution sounds like bringing more Division I schools down to I-A. The talk is to give the North just one team in state tournaments and the South three on a regular basis.
The logical solution here is to add another division, but we are talking about administrators and the NIAA here. Good luck with that.
Winnemucca Publishing Sports Editor Tony Erquiaga can be reached via email at t.erquiaga@winnemuccapublishing.net.
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