WINNEMUCCA - The Winnemucca Junior High School eighth-grade girls basketball team closed out its season in style with three wins last weekend, including the Tri-County Championship on Saturday in Lovelock.
The Warriors (15-1) faced a surprise team in the title game, as Battle Mountain knocked off Pershing County in one of the semifinals. Winnemucca had little trouble with Battle Mountain, winning 46-14.
"Battle Mountain made a nice, huge improvement over the year," said WJHS eighth-grade coach Jack Smith. "They went in and beat Pershing County. Pershing County's best player was hurt and they just didn't have enough to beat Battle Mountain."
Winnemucca raced out to a 14-4 lead in the first quarter against Battle Mountain, on the strength of Brooklyn Waller's eight points. Tiana Herrera added four points in the first six minutes of play, and the Warriors were not challenged after that.
Waller remained hot from the outside, scoring five more points in the second quarter, while Audrey Snow scored six in the period. Hannah Hillyer added a 3-point play the old-fashioned way, giving Winnemucca a 30-6 lead at halftime.
"It is nice to have an outside threat like Brooklyn," Smith said. "She had her A-game going from the outside. Audrey had quite a few steals in the second quarter that led to bunch of layups."
Seven different players scored for the Warriors in the second half as the Shorthorns had trouble mounting a comeback.
Waller led all scorers, and outscored Battle Mountain by herself with 15 points. Snow added eight points; Tiana Herrera six, Olivia Silva and Kenadee Jeppsen four each, Hillyer three and Alyssa Campbell, Brooklyn Backus and Lexi Allen each scored two points.
Prior to the Tri-County championships, Winnemucca traveled to Carson City on Friday, Oct. 5, to face Carson and Eagle Valley. The Warriors avenged their only loss of the season, when they beat Carson 33-25. Winnemucca made it a perfect day with a 28-23 victory over Eagle Valley.
"It was nice to avenge the loss to Carson," added the coach. "We kept their best player in check for the most part. Tiana guarded her the entire game and did a good job. Tiana never gave her any room to move. She had to work her butt off to get the points she did. Tiana is going to be a legitimate player when she gets into high school."
Winnemucca jumped out to a three-point lead after six minutes of play and didn't relinquish the advantage from there. The Warriors led 15-10 at halftime and slowly pulled away with an 11-7 run in the third quarter. Carson closed to within six points in the fourth quarter, but could not get any closer.
Snow led Winnemucca with 12 points, while Waller added eight, which included two 3-point field goals. Herrera scored five points, Amaya Herrera four and Jacy Urain and Silva two each.
Winnemucca had to overcome a two-point deficit in the first half to Eagle Valley. The Warriors used a 10-0 run in the third quarter to lead 24-14 and were not threatened by the Eagles again.
"We didn't let them cherry-pick and get easy layups like the first time we played," Smith said. "We held their twins in check and did a good job of playing defense."
Tiana Herrera led all scorers with 11 points, Snow added five, Waller and Hillyer four each and Silva and Urain each had two points.
"This group has the opportunity to be a good one in high school," Smith said. "There are few of them that seem to want to get better in the offseason, and when that happens you see some definite gains. Everybody has their different passion and that is good. They are still at that stage of what sport they want to play. I am just very proud of this group of girls. They did everything I asked them to do."
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