After battling through two tough games last weekend, the Lowry High School girls basketball team made quick work of Truckee this past Tuesday night in Winnemucca.
The Lady Bucks scored the first 20 points of the contest, and built a 41-7 advantage at halftime en route to a 54-19 victory over the Wolverines. Lowry remained in second place in the Northern 3A at 8-2 and improved to 16-3 on the season.
“We came out and played much better,” said LHS coach Chelsea Cabatbat. “We needed to come out play like this. We were able to get scoring from a lot of the girls.”
In a sign of things to come, Sydney Connors began the game with a 3-pointer, with just a few seconds elapsed. Connors had eight of the 20 points in the first eight minutes of play, including two 3-point field goals.
Alyssa Kuskie added a shot from long distance and the Lady Bucks picked up baskets from Kenadee Jeppsen, Hailey Hinkle and Brooklyn Backus to build a 20-0 lead. Truckee scored its first points with just 20 seconds to go in the first quarter.
Lowry quickly answered back with nine straight points in the second quarter, beginning with a 3-pointer from Connors.
After a bucket by Backus, Kepa Bengochea added two easy layups to increased the lead to 29-2. Bengochea scored all eight of her points in the second quarter.
Lowry used baskets from Amaya Herrera, Aimee Brandon, Brooklyn Waller and Bengochea to score the final eight points of the first half.
The contest went into a running clock 23 seconds into the third quarter after a pair of free throws by Hannah Hillyer.
A 3-point field goal by Kuskie gave the Lady Bucks their largest lead of the night at 50-9.
Lowry held that same 41-point lead at 54-13 after a basket by Backus, when Truckee scored the final six points of the night.
Connors paced Lowry with 11 points — all in the second half. Hinkle and Bengochea had eight points each, and Kuskie and Backus netted six each. Waller and Hillyer each had four points, Jeppsen three and Brandon and Herrera two each.
With just a couple weeks left in the regular season, Churchill County leads the league at 10-0 and is in position to claim the regular season title in the Northern 3A. Lowry is in second place, which would give them a first-round bye in the regional tournament.
Elko (7-2) sits in third place and South Tahoe and Spring Creek are tied for fourth at 4-5. However, South Tahoe owns the tie-breaker over Spring Creek with a win over the Spartans. Fernley is sixth at 3-6.
The Northern 3A Regional Championships will take place at the Winnemucca Event Center from Feb. 16-18.
The top two teams advance to the NIAA 3A State Championships at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas from Feb. 24-25.
Lowry is off this weekend and hosts Spring Creek on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
