The Lowry High School girls basketball squad came home last weekend for its first league games and started out with a bang.
The Lady Bucks won both of the games against North Valleys and Truckee.
In the 52-7 victory over North Valleys, Lowry dominated the first quarter 27-0 and they led at halftime 42-1. The game was played with a running clock from the second quarter to the finish
The Panthers didn’t get on the scoreboard until they notched a free throw with 40 seconds left in the first half.
"I thought we went out and executed really well," said LHS coach Melanie Thurmond about the North Valleys game. "We ran our plays and our defense looked good; we held them to one point in the first half. I am very happy with how we played tonight.”
The girls pumped the brakes a little in the second half, but they took care of business and secured the win.
Becca Kuskie and Juli Garcia out scored North Valleys by themselves with 12 and eight points, respectively.
Sydney Connors, Carly Capellen and Sierra Maestrejuan each had six points.
“I can’t call out any one player, everyone executed well,” Thurmond said. “Our 3-point shooting for the first half was 9-of-14. We had a really good night shooting all around.”
On Saturday, the Lady Bucks took on Truckee and had a little tougher go of it.
The Lady Bucks went back-and-forth with the Wolverines in the first quarter, but emerged with a 13-10 lead.
“Truckee today was a tougher win,” Thurmond said. “But we kind of expected that after we had scouted them. We pulled out a win, and that is the important thing.”
The Lady Bucks led 29-23 at the half and they stretched it to 40-27 at the end of three quarters, before finally emerging with a 50-42 hard fought win.
“They played a saggy defense, and we did not come out shooting as well as we did the night before, which I kind of expected," added the coach. "It is hard to do that two games in a row. That threw us for a loop at first; our outside shots were not going in, so it took us a while to get into the rhythm of the game.”
Connors paced the Lady Bucks with 16 points, while Maestrejuan and Garcia added nine points each.
Heather Hall and Rachel Garrison finished with five points apiece.
“We stayed consistent with what we were doing against Truckee, and although we did change a few things out, it was not anything outside of our norm,” Thurmond said. “We pulled back out of the paint and spread the floor, because I have pretty fast bigs, and that worked to our favor getting out of the middle. Sydney was very consistent for us today; she grabbed eight or nine rebounds and did a good job taking care of the basketball. I have nine really solid girls that can play well, and that is what makes us a pretty decent team. I get help from everyone.”
The Lady Bucks hit the road this weekend, travelling to Spring Creek on Friday, for a 6 p.m. game, and they move on to Elko Saturday, at 1 p.m
“We need to take care of the basketball better as a team. We had seven turnovers in last night’s game, and we had 17 today. We need to try and keep it under ten per game. Boxing out and rebounding has been our ‘Achilles Heel’ in our first five games, so we are going to keep working on that.”
This past weekend, Elko beat Sparks and lost to Fernley, while Spring Creek knocked off both Sparks and Fernley
“Spring Creek is going to be tough, and we watched Elko play in Reno last week; they seemed pretty athletic, so we are getting ready for them,” Thurmond said.
Lowry will compete in the three-day Timberlion Tournament at Borah High School in Boise, Idaho on Dec. 27-Dec. 29.
They are scheduled to play Capital, Centennial, and Bonneville; times are to be determined.
Lowry will be back on its home floor to start the new year, as South Tahoe visits on Friday, Jan. 4, for a 6 p.m. tip and Dayton makes the trip to Winnemucca on Saturday, Jan. 5, for a 1 p.m. tip.
