After another strong performance over Elko in the Northern 3A regional semifinals on Friday afternoon in Winnemucca, the Lowry High School girls basketball team is headed to the state tournament for a fourth consecutive season.
However, the Lady Bucks will not be the No. 1 seed from the North, as been the case in the last three seasons. Lowry (23-4) suffered a 50-15 loss to Churchill County in the championship game on Saturday afternoon at the Winnemucca Event Center.
“We were never in it from the start,” said LHS coach Chelsea Cabatbat. “We played scared from the start and never stepped up to the challenge. Fallon came out and played a great game and you have to give it to them. They were intense and wanted it. They had a little more heart tonight. We can’t hold our heads and fell sorry for ourselves. We have to regroup and have a great week of practice and get ready for the state tournament.”
Churchill County dominated from the start, even though both teams were a bit sluggish and sloppy to begin.
The Greenwave scored the first seven points of the contest and the Lady Bucks did not get on the board until the 3:32 mark of the first quarter on a layup by Sydney Connors.
That was the lone field goal of the first quarter for Lowry, who trailed 13-3 after eight minutes of play.
It didn’t get much better for the Lady Bucks in the second quarter, as the Greenwave built a 27-6 lead. Brooklyn Waller netted all five of Lowry’s points in the quarter, including two jump shots. Lowry made just three field goals in the first half.
The lid stayed on the bucket in the second half as well for Lowry, with Churchill County increasing the lead to 42-9, before Connors knocked down Lowry’s lone field goal of the quarter with :07 to go.
Despite the large lead, Churchill County kept its starters and the press on throughout the fourth quarter, making the game a running clock at 46-11 with 4:57 to play.
Waller paced Lowry with five points, Connors had four, Brooklyn Backus three and Kepa Bengochea, Alyssa Kuskie and Shelby Garrison each had one point.
Lowry holds off Elko
The weekend started on a good note on Friday afternoon, as Lowry punched its ticket to the state tournament with a 56-40 victory over Elko. It was the third win of the year for the Lady Bucks over the Indians.
“Elko always brings out the best in us,” Cabatbat said. “They came out with great game plan against us. We played well when we needed to. That was our biggest game of the year. If we don’t win that game, there is no state tournament for us.”
Lowry picked up eight points from Kuskie in the first quarter, which included two 3-point field goals Kuskie’s second long-distant shot started a 9-0 run that also saw a 3-pointer from Waller to push the advantage to 16 with 3:31 to play in the first quarter.
Elko closed the gap to 16-12 late in the first quarter, but Lowry countered with the final six points of the quarter, and Tiana Herrera hit a short shot to start the second quarter to give the Lady Bucks a 20-12 lead.
As it was the case in the first two meetings, Elko would fall behind only to give Lowry a scare during the contest.
The Indians trimmed the deficit back to 20-16, only to see the Lady Bucks score the next five points off of two free throws by Hannah Hillyer and a 3-pointer by Kuskie.
Lowry claimed its largest lead of the first half at 30-18 after an old-fashioned 3-point play and Waller had an opportunity for a 4-point play at the end of the first half, but missed a free throw after making a 3-pointer.
After both teams went scoreless for the first three minutes of the second half, Hillyer made a short basket to put the Lady Bucks up 35-20. Elko made things interesting one more time with six straight points, but Lowry scored seven points in the final two minutes to push the margin back to 42-28. During that stretch, Waller did convert a 4-point play, and Kuskie drained a 3-pointer with :04 left in the third quarter.
Lowry led by as many as 14 points at the start of the fourth quarter, only to see Elko trim it to eight points at 46-38 with 3:15 to play. That was as close as the Indians got, as Lowry countered with a layup from Connors and a 3-pointer by Kuskie to push the advantage back to 11 points.
Lowry begins its run at the state championship on Friday against Moapa Valley at 2:30 p.m. at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas Churchill County and Virgin Valley play at 11 a.m. The championship is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Cox Pavilion.
“It’s time for us to go back to work,” Cabatbat said. “We need to be aggressive and we will see what we can do against Moapa.”
