The McDermitt High School girls basketball team started its season strong last weekend, and they had a few adventures along the way.
“We had a good start to the season with three games and three wins,” said MHS girls basketball coach Jaimi Wilkinson.
The Lady Bulldogs took down the Elko JV squad 56-39 on Thursday, Nov. 29, at the Wells Rural Electric Company (WREC) Basketball Tournament.
“We started very shaky and did not really figure things out until the start of the third quarter," Wilkinson said. "Precious (Masters) carried the load for us in that game (Masters had 39 points in the contest). In addition to her scoring, she did a good job of shutting down Elko’s top player. Everyone contributed and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the younger girls began to mesh with the three returning starters.”
The responsiblities of a small high school basketball coach often include driving the team to the game, and sometimes that is easier said than done. Wilkinson related why that can be the case.
“We had a near miss on the freeway Thursday," added the coach. "The roads were awful. Elko JV was on a bus right beside us and the two vehicles in front of us lost control, collided, and spun around in the middle of the freeway. The Elko bus driver got over to the left as far as he could to avoid hitting them and I had to take the car off into the sagebrush on the right side of the freeway to keep from hitting them. When we got to the gym the Elko kids thought that we didn’t make it through the mess. They were sure that we hit one of the vehicles, but we hadn’t, thank goodness. We were very fortunate that we were traveling at a low rate of speed and I was able to get off the road without an accident. So, yeah, Thursday was a little rocky!”
On Friday, Nov. 30, McDermitt defeated Round Mountain 54-14.
“They were very small in size, but physically sound,” Wilkinson said. “They did a bang up job of shutting down our interior game, which gave outside open looks for Jasmine (Northrup), who hit four three point shots, as well as Katie (Crutcher). Takayla (Antonio) continues to get better and rebounded well in the game. She is beginning to be a threat in the paint. Victoria (Navarro) and Marley (Astor) also contributed with their defense. Precious did what she does best and pushed the ball up the floor, scoring 21 points in limited minutes of play.”
Masters is averaging 28.7 points per game in this young season, Crutcher sits at 12.
The Lady Bulldogs beat Pahranagat Valley High School (Alamo) 56-24 on Saturday, Dec. 1 to move to 3-0 on the season.
“Alamo is the defending state champion and a perennial powerhouse," Wilkinson said.. "We looked more like a cohesive unit midway throughout the first quarter, but we still have a lot to work on and need to focus on rebounding. All in all, I thought the girls played their best game so far on Saturday. Anytime you can get a win against a program like Alamo, you have to feel good about where you are and where you are going.”
Masters, Northrup, and Crutcher were named players of each game respectively.
McDermitt headed to Jordan Valley, Ore. for their annual ‘Border War” game on Monday Dec. 3; results of the contest were not available at press time.
