In a year where all the bounces have gone the way of the McDermitt High School boys basketball team, the squad on the Oregon/Nevada border got another one this past Friday night in Eureka.
The Bulldogs erased a double-digit deficit in the second half to come back and beat the Vandals 59-56 to capture the Eastern 1A regular season championship at 11-1.
“It was a miracle comeback,” said MHS coach Jack Smith. “We were down by 20 in the first half. It was no better to start the third quarter and people were starting to leave. It was an amazing comeback and it's good to be league champions.”
It is a huge improvement from a year ago, when McDermitt missed out on the playoffs last year in a tiebreaker to Jackpot. The same basic group came back with a couple additions to help the Bulldogs to the league title.
It was all Eureka in the first half, jumping out to a 19-10 advantage after eight minutes of play. It wasn’t much better for the Bulldogs in the second quarter, as the Vandals increased the lead to 32-19 at halftime.
McDermitt began its comeback late in the third quarter and cut the margin to seven points at 45-38. The final eight minutes belonged to McDermitt, who outscored Eureka 21-11 to avenge an earlier loss to the Vandals.
McDermitt will take the top seed from the Eastern 1A and play Sierra Lutheran on Thursday at 8 p.m. at Elko High School. If the Bulldogs win they would play the winner of Whittell/Virginia City and Owyhee on Friday at 8 p.m.
The bottom half of the bracket has Mineral County playing Jackpot and Eureka taking on Virginia City or Whittell. Whittell and Virginia City still had to play a makeup game to determine final seeding for the tournament.
The championship game is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday at Elko High School. The two finalist advance to the NIAA State Championships in Las Vegas on Feb. 24-25.
