The Lowry High School boys basketball team celebrated senior night this past Tuesday in the home finale against rival Elko.
The Indians did not play the gracious guest, leaving Winnemucca with a 62-30 win to complete the season-sweep of the Buckaroos.
“Elko did a very good job of making us more offensively challenged than we already are,” said LHS head coach Chad Peters. "We struggled to find the basket. Our goal was to come into tonight and work on some things for this weekend and hopefully next week in the regional tournament if we make it. We knew tonight was going to be tough. Our biggest concern this is weekend.”
Lowry did not make its first field goal until five minutes were elapsed in the opening quarter. The Buckaroos made just four field goals in the first half and were held to nine points.
Joe Taylor made the first two baskets for the Buckaroos, who trailed 6-4, but Elko went on a 21-5 run to end the first half. The Indians opened the advantage to 20-6, when Dom Solis knocked down a 3-pointer with 5:11 left in the first half. Those were the only points of the second quarter for Lowry.
“I was really happy with the way Riley (Sakurada) came in and played,” Peters said. “He gave us some great minutes. His job was to keep Eric (Klekas) under his average, which was our goal. We wanted to make other players beat us. The rest of their team beat us. I am OK with that.”
Taylor added a couple baskets in the third quarter, but Elko pushed the advantage to 46-14 and was just a basket away from turning the contest into a running clock. Lowry prevented the running clock at a 35-point deficit, when Solis knocked down his second 3-pointer of the night.
Dylan Kalkoske opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer to cut the margin to 46-20, only to see Elko answer with an 8-1 run to go back in front 54-21. Despite leading by more than 30 points, the Indians still had some of their starters in the fourth quarter and were within a basket of a running clock at 62-28.
“I thought Dylan and Brendan (Domire) came and gave us some good minutes of defense to stop their top guys,” added the coach. Our three seniors played hard tonight. I was proud of how they showed composure. Right now, we just have to worry about ourselves.”
Taylor led the Buckaroos with eight points and Solis added six. Kalkoske netted five points, Jed Teichert and Ren Mattson three each, Brady Lange and Domire two each and Sakurada one.
Lowry’s playoff hopes comes down to this weekend with a pair of road games. The Buckaroos (4-10 Northern 3A) faced Truckee on Friday and results were not available at press time. The regular season concludes today (Saturday) at Sparks at 2:30 p.m.
Coming into the final weekend of play, Elko is first at 13-1 and South Tahoe is second at 12-2. Fernley (11-4) is third and Spring Creek (10-4) is fourth. Churchill County (6-9) holds the fifth spot, while Dayton (5-9) is sixth. Dayton has to play Elko and Spring Creek this weekend. If the Dust Devils lose both games, and the Buckaroos win both, Lowry will be the sixth seed for the regional tournament next week in Winnemucca.
“We have to worry about getting a couple wins this weekend if we want to be in the regional tournament on our home floor,” Peters said. “We can’t worry about what everyone else does.”
