It may only be December but after a slow start in the Northern 3A, the Lowry High School boys basketball team was looking at a must-win situation this past weekend in Sparks and Truckee.
The Buckaroos entered the road trip winless in league play and further losses would have created an uphill battles toward claiming a playoff spot in February.
The last time the Buckaroos played, they scored 29 points in a 49-29 loss to South Tahoe. Lowry surpassed that total in the second quarter on Friday night in a 78-38 win over Sparks.
“We made some good strides and didn’t go backwards,” said LHS coach Chad Peters. “It was nice to see the offense get going after struggling for a couple weeks. The guys worked hard.”
Lowry raced out to a 9-0 lead behind seven points from Kobe Stoker in the first three minutes of the contest. The Buckaroos picked up contributions from Shai Welsh, Scottie Smith and Evan Jeppsen to build a double-digit advantage. The Buckaroos’ first 3-pointer of the night by Brendan Domire gave Lowry a 23-9 lead.
Behind by five points from Domire and a basket by Domonick Solis, the Buckaroos advantage grew to 30-11, 90 seconds into the second quarter. Oscar Juanes added eight points in the last four minutes of the first half, to propel the Buckaroos to a 44-19 lead at halftime.
Lowry continued to pull away throughout the second half, moving players in and out of the lineup and working on the offense. Late in the third quarter, the Buckaroos picked up contributions from Welsh, Solis and Jeppsen to extend the lead to 59-30.
After a basket by Smith, Juanes knocked down consecutive 3-pointers down the floor to give the Buckaroos a 69-32 lead and a running clock with 5:51 to play. Kyle Sappington added a 3-pointer late in the game, as Lowry outscored Sparks 20-8 in the final eight minutes of play.
All 12 players scored for Lowry, including three in double figures. Juanes led all scorers with 18 points, Stoker added 15 and Domire 10. Welsh added eight points, Smith seven and Jeppsen six. Sappington had five points, Darian Solis, Domonick Solis, Logan Peters and Dorsey Naveran two points each and Ren Mattson one.
“We got everyone to score, which was nice,” Peters said. “I thought Oscar played very well. He handled the ball well, played good defense and shot the ball. We did a lot of good things defensively.”
Lowry holds off Truckee
Lowry gave up the opening basket of the game at Truckee on Saturday afternoon but followed with a 17-0 run in the first quarter and went on to win 61-48. The Buckaroos improved to 2-2 in the Northern 3A and 5-4 overall.
Domire netted 11 of the 17 points in the spurt, knocking down three 3-point field goals. He finished with a game-high 21 points.
“It was one of those weird games,” Peters said. “We didn’t play our best but we were able to get the job done. It got close in the end and it wasn’t a game that I wanted to lose. It was a game we needed to win.”
Welsh, a former Wolverine, closed out the run to give the Buckaroos a 17-2 lead. Truckee did score the final five points of the first quarter to cut the deficit to 17-7.
Domire’s fourth 3-pointer of the day, gave Lowry its largest lead of the first half at 30-14 but that quickly evaporated. Truckee scored the next seven points and had the ball with just seconds left in the first half. However, the momentum shifted when Naveran scored after a turnover and was fouled with a second left in the half. The junior made the free throw to convert the 3-point play and give the Buckaroos a 33-21 lead.
Behind six points from Smith, Lowry maintained a double-digit lead at 39-25. Once again Truckee would not go away and cut the gap down to nine points, when Domire converted his fifth 3-pointer to push the lead back to 45-30.
It wasn’t easy in the end for the Buckaroos in the fourth quarter, as the Wolverines rallied to close the gap to 50-45 with four minutes to play. That was as close as Truckee got, as Lowry finished the contest on an 11-3 run. Domonick Solis, Naveran and Smith combined for the final 11 points.
Stoker added 10 points in the win, while Naveran and Smith each added eight points. Juanes scored five, Welsh four, Domonick Solis three and Mattson two.
Lowry is off until Dec. 27 when it travels to Las Vegas for the Tri-State Invitational at Del Sol High School. The Buckaroos are scheduled to play Hurricane, Utah, Sunrise Mountain and Shadow Ridge in pool play. Lowry is guaranteed to play two more games in the three-day tournament.
“It will be good for us to go down there,” Peters said. “We will get tested with some tough games to get us ready for January and February.”
