On Friday, Feb. 9, the Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team played host to West Wendover in a critical Northern 2A League game between the two schools. The Longhorns fell short against the Wolverines 63-54 dropping them to the No. 3 seed for the regional playoffs this weekend in Elko.
West Wendover came out strong against Battle Mountain. shooting and outscoing Battle Mountain 17-11 in the first quarter.
The Longhorns were able to get the Wolverines team scoring leader Saul Palacios into early foul trouble but were unable to take advantage of the opportunity. West Wendover, despite not having a Palacios, outscored Battle Mountain 26-20 in the second quarter to expand its halftime lead to 43-21.
The Longhorns needed to respond and did so with a combination of defensive stops and clutch shooting.
Reese Artz led Battle Mountain in scoring with 16 points and tied for the lead in rebounds with Chris Figueroa with seven. Mason Fuller and Miles Piramide each scored 15 points in the contest, and Fuller’s defensive rotation helped the Longhorns nearly halt the Wolverine offense, taking three charges against West Wendover.
The Longhorns held the Wolverines to seven points in the third quarter but only cut the lead down to nine and struggled to finish in the quarter.
During the fourth quarter, momentum appeared to switch into Battle Mountain’s favor as the defense held West Wendover scoreless halfway through the final period. With less than four minutes to go, Fuller knock down a 3-point field goal to give the Longhorns the lead at 51-50.
West Wendover and Battle Mountain were locked into a back-and-forth game once again. Palacios helped the Wolverines get back in front. In desperation the Longhorns were forced to foul him. Palacios made each of his free throws and helped the Wolverines win the contest by nine points.
“I was proud of how hard the guys worked throughout the game, especially when we fell behind by 17 early on,” said BMHS coach Roger Wallock. “We battled back actually to take the lead in the fourth but they just made a couple more plays down the stretch than we did. “We are disappointed not to get the two seed, and a first-round bye but the important thing is that we still have a good chance being successful there. We just have to start that journey on Thursday instead of Friday.”
Battle Mountain will open the Northern 2A Regional Championships on Thursday at 4:40 p.m. against North Tahoe at Adobe Middle School in Elko.
If the Longhorns win against the Lakers, they will play against the Wolverines for a third time on Friday at 4:40 p.m. at Adobe Middle School.
Pershing County holds as the top seed in the regional tournament and will play the winner of the Yerington Lions and Incline Highlanders on Friday at 8 p.m.
The championship game is set for 1 p.m. at Elko High School on Saturday. The two finalists advance to the state championships next week at Sparks High School and Lawlor Events Center in Reno.
