The McDermitt High School boys basketball team went to Susanville, Calif., last weekend to participate in the Lassen High School Tournament.
The Bulldogs faced some tough competition from several California teams and came home empty handed.
“Susanville has a cool older gym, it kind of looks like an air hanger," said MHS coach Jack Smith. "But, they have a brand new floor. Everyone there was asking us when we arrived, ‘Where is McDermitt?’ We came in a big charter bus with our name on the outside of it, so it was kind of cool; we felt like rock stars.”
On Friday, the Bulldogs took on the Mount Shasta JV team and fell 66-37.
“Mt. Shasta had a couple of really big post players that we could not match up against,” Smith said. “They got out to an early lead, and we tried to scratch and crawl our way back into the game.”
The Bears jumped out to a 23-5 lead in the first quarter before MHS posted 13 points in the second to make it 38-18 at the half. Ben Draunidalo had 21 points in the contest, shooting 47 percent from the field, and Jagger Hinkey added 12 points.
On Saturday morning, McDermitt took on the Oroville High School JV squad and lost a close one 58-45.
“We tried to go out and press Oroville, but they were just a little too quick,” Smith said.
The Tigers posted a 23-7 first quarter lead, but the Bulldogs came on strong after that. 14 points in the second and 12 in each quarter of the second half put MHS within contention at the end. Hinkey had 20 points in the contest.
“We are lacking scoring, we are too one and two dimensional," Smith said. "We need to get some other people going.”
The last game of the weekend put the Bulldogs up against the host team Lassen’s JV team, and McDermitt fell 67-55.
“Our closest game of the weekend was our last one against Lassen," Smith said. "We played them earlier this year in the Reno Tournament without Ben and they ran us out of the gym by over 30 points. This time it was a great game right until the end. They pulled away at the end of the fourth quarter, but it was a back and forth tussle. My kids were calling the California shooters ‘snipers’, because of their three point shots.”
Hinkey had five 3-pointers of his own on his way to a 23 point performance against the Grizzlies. Draunidalo was close behind with 22 points.
McDermitt now sits at 1-10 overall with the last non-conference games of the year coming up.
“I’m trying to teach these guys more than just basketball," Smith said. "The structure and discipline, and the character stuff that you learn now carries over into everything that you do afterwards in your life.”
The Bulldogs get a break for Christmas before hitting the road for the Rail City Classic tournament in Sparks Dec. 26-29.
“This weekend at the Rail City Classic every school will be a lot larger than us," Smith said. "It will be tough. We open up against Sparks, a 3A team. I put us up against quality, large school teams for our pre-season games. Some people might think that it would damper the kid’s spirits, but my philosophy is that it is going to toughen you up and prepare you for league play. This is humbling us and letting us see what good teams do to win; we have to duplicate what we see them doing.”
McDermitt starts the New Year with a game at Wells on Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m.
