During the basketball season there will be nights where everything goes in the basket and there will be nights were nothing will fall.
Unfortunately, for the Battle Mountain High School boys, it suffered the latter at on Friday night against Yerington. The Lions, the defending Division III North champions, used a strong defensive effort to beat the Longhorns 57-32.
Battle Mountain did not make a 2-point field goal in the first half, as Yerington built a double-digit lead and never looked back. The Longhorns dropped to 2-2 in the Division III North and 12-4 overall.
“We picked a very bad night to play our worst game of the year, especially offensively,” said BMHS coach Roger Wallock. “We shot 3-for-24 from 2-point range. Most of which were good shots that we usually make. Granted, Yerington is a good defensive team and their pressure and size inside probably made us shoot those shots a little differently than we normally would.”
Battle Mountain held the lead once at 3-0 off a 3-point field goal by Miles Piramide, but Yerington quickly answered with 10 straight points. The Lions led by as many as nine points in the opening quarter, as the only other field goals from Battle Mountain in the first eight minutes of play came on 3-point shots by Blake Dorian. Dorian finished with a team-high 17 points to go with five rebounds.
Battle Mountain closed with five points at the start of the second quarter after free throws by Piramide and Dorian. However, Yerington went on a 16-1 run to push the lead to 30-13, as Battle Mountain’s offensive troubles continued. The only field goal of the quarter came off a 3-points hot by Dorian with 90 seconds to go, as the Lions led by 15 points at halftime.
Battle Mountain finally notched its first 2-point field goal with 4:59 left in the third quarter on a shot by Chris Figueroa. The Lions extended the margin to 42-21 at one time in the fourth quarter, when Dorian answered with a pair of 3-point field goals to cut the margin down 42-27. That was as close as the Longhorns got the rest of the night. Battle Mountain shots just 21 percent from the field (9-for-43).
Yerington pushed the advantage to 25 points in the fourth quarter, as Battle Mountain converted just one field goal in the final eight minutes of action.
Figueroa added five points and nine rebounds for Battle Mountain, Piramide had three points, Sergio Diaz, Jaren price and Sadonte Johnson two each and Bryan Chavira one. Price had three steals and Rangel two assists.
Battle Mountain heads out on the road for a pair of league games this weekend, starting Friday night in Lovelock with a 7:30 p.m. tip against Pershing County. The Longhorns take on Silver Stage at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
“We just have to regroup, work hard to get better in practice, and use this tough loss as a teaching moment to make us handle the pressure of playing good basketball teams better next time,” Wallock said.
