The Battle Mountain High School junior varsity boys basketball team continued its winning ways with three victories last week.
The Longhorns were on their home floor on Tuesday, Jan. 12, to take on Independence. For the second time this year, Battle Mountain won by two points, this time 35-33.
“It was a very defensive game against Independence,” said BMHS coach Tyler Samuelson. “We got a couple good looks, but for the most part their length really made it hard to get shots off. We didn’t have a field goal in the fourth quarter, but we shot 10-of-12 free throws.”’
Battle Mountain pulled out to a six-point lead in the first quarter, but Independence bounced back with a 12-4 run in the second quarter to lead 22-18 at halftime. The Colts held that advantage until the final eight minutes, where the Longhorns shined at the foul line.
“We kept being aggressive on offense and getting to the foul line,” said the coach. “We capitalized when we made it there, and that’s what really won us the game. If we don’t make as many free throws as we did, it would’ve been a completely different game.”
Reese Artz had eight points and Mason Fuller and Gabe Naveran each contributed six.
BMHS gets by Pershing County
Battle Mountain traveled to Lovelock on Friday to take on rival Pershing County. Despite a six-point deficit in the first half, the Longhorns came back to win 58-52.
Trailing by a point at halftime, Battle Mountain outscored Pershing County 15-11 in the third quarter to lead 39-36 and never trailed again.
“Friday was a hard fought game,” Samuelson said. “We have a lot of history with Lovelock, and it’s always tough playing in their gym. We struggled scoring early, but once we found our rhythm we kind of got in a flow and broke down their defense to get good looks. This was a great win for us, to come into probably our biggest rivals’ gym and be able to what we did was awesome.”
Artz had a team-high 14 points to go with eight rebounds and four steals. Fuller had a double-double on the day with 14 points and 12 rebounds. He also added four assists and four steals. Naveran had 14 points and five rebounds and Danny Diaz finished with four steals.
Longhorns race by Nighthawks
Battle Mountain completed the road trip on Saturday with an easy 52-28 victory over Silver Stage. The Longhorns led 36-15 at halftime and were never challenged by the Nighthawks.
Fuller and Naveran paced Battle Mountain with 19 and 11 points, respectively, and Artz added six points.
“Overall, we probably had our best game of the season,” said the coach. “Saturday didn’t start off as a blowout, we were only up seven after the first quarter. We had a huge second quarter, going on a 15-0 run. A lot of guys got a lot of playing time, and it was good for us to fine tune some things. We had a really solid second and third quarter, and really focused on running our offenses with a purpose.”
Battle Mountain hosts North Tahoe on Friday at 4 p.m. and Incline on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
