In a busy week where it played three games, the Battle Mountain high School junior varsity basketball team collected two wins.
Battle Mountain started with a 36-18 road win at Wells on Tuesday, Dec. 13. After a scoreless drought in the first quarter, the Longhorns picked up the play to double up the Leopards. DJ Martinez and Roy Chavira led Battle Mountain with eight and six points, respectively.
“We did not start the game very well at all,” said BMHS coach Tyler Samuelson. “We went six and a half minutes into the first quarter before we scored our first points, we were only up 5-3 after the first quarter. But, we really picked it up in the second and third quarters outscoring Wells 30-12 in that span.”
BMHS races past Lakers
Battle Mountain started Northern 2A play on a high note with a 57-15 win at North Tahoe on Friday. The Lakers managed just two points in the first half.
Bradley Rogers paced the scoring attack with 11 points, while Roberto Esparaza added 10 points. Eddie Morfin and Martinez each scored eight points.
“This was the complete opposite of the Wells game,” Samuelson said. “We came out on fire tonight, which is tough to do on this long road trip. Defensively, we didn’t let North Tahoe score in the first quarter, and they only had two in the second. We got a little lazy in the third, giving up offensive rebounds and lay ups. But overall, this was a great win start to finish.”
Longhorns fall in overtime
Battle Mountain was looking to finish the week with a perfect 3-0 record, but lost 60-57 in overtime to Incline.
With 50 seconds left to play, Battle Mountain was down eight points when Martinez stole the ball and made a fast break lay-up to cut the deficit to six. Battle Mountain forced a turnover on Incline’s possession Martinez hit a 3-pointer to trim the gap to three points.
Battle Mountain fouled on the next inbound pass with 15 seconds left, and Incline missed the front end of a 1-and-1. The Longhorns got the rebound and pushed the ball up the floor where Martinez caught the ball on the wing and hit another 3pointer to tie it with :03 left, and the game went to overtime.
Battle Mountain picked up two points early in overtime, and we couldn’t fight back.
Martinez had 13 points for Battle Mountain, while Rogers, Esparza and Chavira had nine points apiece.
“This was a really great game,” Samuelson said. “We were down the whole game, every time we made a little run they would answer and stay ahead. We had a chance to tie it in overtime but didn’t get a very good shot as time expired. We played a great game, there were some mistakes here and there that we can definitely improve on. We showed that we have a ton of fight in us after this game, and that you can’t ever count us out.”
Battle Mountain is off for Christmas break and returns to floor on Friday, Jan. 6, against West Wendover at 4:30 p.m. The Longhorns move on to White Pine on Jan. 7 for a 12:30 p.m. tip.
