LAS VEGAS — When the Lowry High School girls basketball team defeated Moapa Valley in the semifinals of the NIAA 3A State Championships, it gave the Lady Bucks another opportunity to play rival Churchill County.
The Greenwave beat the Lady Bucks three times during the season, including 50-15 in the regional final in Winnemucca the week before.
The two best teams in the 3A met for a fourth time on Saturday at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas. Lowry came out and played much better in the state final and trailed by seven points early in the third quarter. However, Churchill County pulled away for a 54-38 victory. It was the first basketball title in school history for the Greenwave.
“You have to give Fallon credit, they are a good team,” said LHS coach Chelsea Cabatbat. “I thought we came out and played much bettter. We showed up and executed our game plan. We were still in at halftime. We hit a shot to start the third quarter and I thought things were going to go totally different. They came back and made a couple plays and their press killed us. The press was the big difference. We had no answer for it.”
Sydney Connors opened the contest with a 3-pointer, only to see Churchill County score the next 12 points. The Lady Bucks suffered through a handful of turnovers in the back court off the Greenwave press.
Hannah Hillyer ended the run with a short jump shot with 4:29 left in the quarter that closed the gap to 12-5. Churchill County went on to lead 15-6 after eight minutes of play.
Lowry slowly climbed back into the game, starting with a put back basket by Brooklyn Waller. Churchill County extended the advantage back to 20-11, but Lowry countered with a basket by Connors after she missed a free throw and a 3-pointer by Alyssa Kuskie to draw the Lady Bucks to within four points at 20-16 with 3:12 to go in the first half.
For every run Lowry made, it seemed Churchill County had an answer. The Greenwave went on an 11-2 run to end the half, before Brooklyn Backus knocked down a 3-pointer at the buzzer to make the score 31-21.
The Lady Bucks started the second half with a 3-pointer by Waller to close the gap to seven points, but that was as close as Lowry got. Churchill County scored the next eight points, forcing Lowry to call a time out. Churchill County ended the third quarter on a 15-2 run to lead 46-26.
“If we clean some things up, maybe it’s a different outcome,” Cabatbat said. “It just wasn’t our day. I am proud of them. We changed some things on the fly and they took right to it. Today was a team that we are not. We are not a zone team. We had to do some different things.”
Lowry knocks off Moapa Valley
In order to reach the final, Lowry took down the No. 1 seed from the Southern 3A Moapa Valley 61-42 on Friday afternoon at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.
The Lady Bucks caught fire in the second half, making 7-of-9 shots from behind the 3-point line. For the game, Lowry was 10-of-15.
Lowry scored seven of the first nine points off of baskets by Connors, Kenadee Jeppsen and Hannah Hillyer. A 3-pointer by Kuskie gave the Lady Bucks a 12-4 advantage with 2:39 left in the opening quarter.
Moapa Valley countered with the final six points of the first quarter and made a free throw to start the second quarter and cut the Lowry lead to 12-11.
The Pirates erased the deficit and took their first and only lead at 22-21. Jeppsen gave the Lady Bucks the lead for good the next time down the floor and Lowry went into halftime up 26-24.
After watching Moapa Valley close the gap to 29-28 midway through the third quarter, Lowry ended the final four minutes with an 11-2 run to lead 40-29.The Lady Bucks had four 3-point field goals in the third quarter, with three of them coming from Waller. Connors had the other long-distant shot. The Lady Bucks outscored the Pirates 15-4 after some halftime adjustments of defense.
“All week we watched these teams play tons and tons of zone,” Cabatbat said. “That is not us and we don’t play a ton of zone. I wasn’t going to change anything up. But, Moapa was taking it to the hole on us like crazy in the first half. We knew we had to change something and went to a 3-2 zone. We had not practiced it at all and the girls executed it well.”
Lowry saw its 16-point lead dwindle to 49-41 with 3:42 to play, but the Lady Bucks scored the final 12 points to notch the victory.
Connors and Waller paced Lowry with 22 and 15 points, respectively. Waller added eight points, Tiana Herrera seven, Kuskie six and Hillyer four.
Lowry ended the season at 24-5, with four of the losses to Churchill County. The other defeat was to Reed of the Northern 4A.
“We would have liked to won the state championship, but it was still a great year,” Cabatbat. “The girls came a long way this year. I hate it for the seniors to go out like this. They were freshmen when I took over as the varsity coach.”
