After struggling the past couple years, the excitement is back for the Battle Mountain High School girls basketball team.
The Lady Longhorns tipped off their season last weekend at the Serpent Classic in Hawthorne and came away with three wins in five games.
In the season opener, Battle Mountain crushed Virginia City 52-11 last Thursday, as freshman Sruti Bhakta outscored the Muckers in her first high school game. The freshman finished with 14 points, while fellow ninth-grader Grace Melver had 10 points.
Battle Mountain picked up two wins on Friday, starting with a 53-36 victory over Yerington. The Lady Longhorns collected a balanced scoring attack, beginning with 11 points from sophomore Paige Ripley.
Yulisa Vazquez joined her in double figures with 10 and Bhakta added nine points and 10 assists.
Battle Mountain cruised to an easy win in the day’s second game, beating Dayton 72-46. All 10 Lady Longhorns in uniform scored, with Vazquez and Bhakta scoring 10 each.
Battle Mountain suffered its first loss of the year on Saturday morning with a 62-50 loss to host Hawthorne. Bhakta continued her strong start to the season with 19 points.
In the tournament finale, Battle Mountain lost 36-26 to White Pine of the Division III South.
“We had a good weekend,” said BMHS coach Paul Tremayne. “The girls played hard. I think we found out that we can compete with the teams in our league. We also learned that we need to play hard all of the time or else we are very beatable. It could be an exciting year.”
Battle Mountain traveled to Wells on Tuesday and results were not available at press time. The Lady Longhorns are back on the road this weekend in Virginia City for the Comstock Classic.
Battle Mountain is scheduled to play McDermitt, Wells and Virginia City. McDermitt is undefeated on the year.
The Lady Longhorns make their home debut on Tuesday against Wells in a non-conference contest at 4:30 p.m.
