WINNEMUCCA - If it were possible, the Winnemucca Junior High School eighth-grade girls basketball team would like to skip the first 12 minutes of its games and go straight to the third quarter of play.
The Warriors (2-0 Tri-County, 6-0 overall) remained undefeated on the season, with four victories over the weekend, but needed second-half comebacks in two of the wins.
Winnemucca was at home for the first time on Thursday and defeated Fallon 42-25, after trailing by eight points in the second quarter. The Warriors made the short trip north to McDermitt on Friday to open Tri-County League play and beat Pershing County 35-30 and Battle Mountain 34-14. Winnemucca concluded the busy weekend back at home on Saturday with 43-29 win over Eagle Valley, after falling behind by 12 points in the second quarter.
"We have had a theme of getting off to slow starts," said WJHS head coach Jack Smith. "It takes us a while to get going, and then we start to wear teams down in the end. Our press gets us a lot of points off turnovers, but we have to be ready to play when the game starts. We can't keep giving teams big leads on us."
In the win over Fallon, Tiana Herrera, McKenna Jones and Brooklyn Waller all scored in the first quarter to help Winnemucca stay within two points of the Greenwave at 8-6. A technical foul on the Warriors for crossing the inbounds line led to a 6-0 run by Fallon that extended into the second quarter.
Amaya Herrera ended the Fallon spurt with a free throw, which was followed by a basket by Brooklyn Backus on an inbounds play that brought Winnemucca within five points at 14-9. The Greenwave quickly jumped the lead back to nine points at 18-9 and went into halftime with a 20-14 advantage.
The Warriors erased their halftime deficit in the third quarter, outscoring the Greenwave 10-3, and taking their first lead at 23-21 on a jump shot by Waller. Winnemucca's run-and-jump press created havoc for Fallon in the final six minutes of play as the Warriors broke open a one-point game with an 18-3 run, which included 10 points by Audrey Snow.
Winnemucca outscored Fallon 28-5 in the second half, and allowed the Greenwave to make just two field goals in the last 12 minutes of the game.
"It was a close game the first time we played them," Smith said. "This group of girls has not had a lot of success against Fallon."
Behind her 10-point third quarter, Snow led all scorers with 13 points. Tiana Herrera added eight points, Waller six, Kenadee Miller and Jones each scored four, Backus three and Kenadee Jeppsen and Amaya Herrera two points each.
Winnemucca used a strong first half in McDermitt to hold off Pershing County in the start of Tri-County play. The Warriors outscored the Colts 10-4 in the first period, behind six points from Tiana Herrera and made the lead stand up from there.
The Warriors also scored 10 points in the second period, four each from Snow and Tiana Herrera to hold a 20-12 lead at the halftime break.
Pershing County outscored Winnemucca 10-8 in the third quarter, but could not get any closer the rest of the game.
"They are a good team," Smith said. "They are very-well coached and play a lot of basketball together. They are shooting to beat us."
Tiana Herrera led the Warriors with 10 points, while her twin sister, Amaya Herrera, added eight points. Snow also scored eight points, Waller seven and Miller finished with two points.
The second game in McDermitt proved to be much easier for Winnemucca in its win over Battle Mountain. The Warriors outscored the Shorthorns 8-0 in the first quarter and led 18-6 at halftime. Jacy Urain, Waller and Snow combined for 12 of the 18 points.
Winnemucca continued to build its lead in the second half, scoring eight points in both the third and fourth quarters. Nine players scored for the Warriors, with Snow leading the way with eight. Olivia Silva, Hannah Hillyer, Amaya Herrera, Waller and Urain scored four each and Lexi Allen, Miller and Jones each had two points.
Winnemucca appeared to be in trouble on Saturday as Eagle Valley scored the first 11 points of the game, before a free throw by Waller stopped the run. The Eagles forced a number of Warriors' turnovers in the early going, leading to the advantage. Miller had the only field goal for Winnemucca in the first quarter as Eagle Valley led 14-4.
The Eagles maintained a 10-point lead into halftime, but it was not enough as the Warriors came back for the second time in three days from a halftime deficit to win. Winnemucca more than doubled its halftime output in the third quarter, outscoring Eagle Valley 18-6. A basket by Tiana Herrera with eight seconds left in the third period gave Winnemucca its first lead at 26-24. She scored six points in the quarter, while Jones and Waller combined for nine more.
The rally continued into the fourth quarter, with Winnemucca going on a 17-5 run to break the game open. The Warriors spent much of their time at the free throw line in the final six minutes, going 9-of-14 from the charity stripe. For the game, Winnemucca was 15-of-33 from the free throw line.
Snow and Tiana Herrera led the Warriors with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Waller added eight points, Jones six, Amaya Herrera five and Miller three points.
"Our energy level was very poor in the first half," Smith said. "We came out after halftime and the energy was much better. I have to figure some way for us to have that same energy at the start of a game. I am sure proud of how the girls came back and played. They got after it in the second half."
Winnemucca travels to Battle Mountain Friday for the second round of Tri-County action at 10 a.m.
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