The McDermitt High School boys basketball team traveled to the Comstock Classic on Dec. 6-8 and came home with its first win of their young season, beating Round Mountain 58-44.
The Bulldogs lost to Pahranagat Valley (Alamo) on Thursday, Dec. 6, in the first game of the tournament 56-39. The defeat to the Panthers dropped them to 0-5 on the year.
However, Friday was a new day and McDermitt came to play.
The Bulldogs won their first game of the season when they played the Round Mountain Knights on Friday and grabbed a 58-44 win.
“We finally got a win, beating Round Mountain on Friday,” said MHS boys basketball coach Jack Smith. “We pulled away by a lot at the beginning of the game, we had them down by almost 20 points; but then they started coming back.”
MHS scored 25 points in the second half to hold off the Knights for the win.
The Bulldogs played a double-header on Friday in Virginia City, taking on the home court Virginia City Muckers in the featured game of the night, but they lost a heartbreaker 61-60.
“It was back and forth the entire game," Smith said. "Jagger (Hinkey) had to come out due to a minor injury at the start of the third quarter, and we let them get ahead by nine. Then, with about two minutes to play in the game, we rallied, and we narrowed it to a one-point game. A couple of tough calls by the refs hurt us at that point; they fouled out the wrong player and stopped a breakaway drive by Jagger because the clock wasn’t running correctly. Despite all that, we had a chance to win as the clock was ticking down. We got a good shot from three feet as time expired, but it did not fall.”
Hinkey had 38 points in the contest, while Draunidalo added 21.
On Saturday, MHS took on the Battle Mountain Longhorns and fell 67-24.
“My kids were drained and tired and we played a good team,” Smith said about Saturday’s game. “Battle Mountain kind of just ran us out of the gym. They have a good squad; man for man, we could not match up.”
McDermitt now sits at 1-7 overall with the last non-conference games of the year coming up.
The Bulldogs travel to Susanville, Calif., on Saturday, Dec. 15, to take on Lassen High School.
"We have never been to Susanville before as a team, and we are pretty excited to see the new surroundings,” Smith said.
They get a break for Christmas before hitting the road for the Rail City Classic tournament in Sparks Dec. 26-29.
“The Rail City Classic will wrap up our pre-season,” Smith concluded. “We went to this tournament last year and we made a mark there. That is why we got invited to play in Lassen this year. We will be, by far, the tiniest school at that tournament, and we will be playing their varsity squads.”
