The Battle Mountain High School girls basketball team hosted West Wendover on Friday night in the final league game of the regular season. The Lady Longhorns played well and overwhelmed the Wolverines 55-41 to earn their 21st win of the season.
Battle Mountain took the court with the No. 2 seed in the Northern 2A already locked up for the regional tournament. West Wendover came into the night with nothing left to play for. The Wolverines were able to shock the Lady Longhorns initially, coming out competitive and keeping the game close. After the first quarter, the two teams were tied 11-11.
That did not last long, though, as the better team started to emerge in the second quarter. The Lady Longhorns — led by Grace Melver’s 18-points, four rebounds and four steals — helped Battle Mountain build their lead at halftime to 26-20. Paige Ripley, playing in her final home game in her Longhorn career, also played well scoring 13 points in the contest and led the Lady Longhorns with five rebounds.
Despite the Wolverines’ best efforts, the Lady Longhorns continued to build their lead, with point guard Sruti Bhakta dishing out 10 assists.
“It was senior night, and our girls played well,” said BMHS coach Paul Tremayne.” The girls played with a lot of intensity and created numerous turnovers that led to easy baskets. We have had a tremendous second half of the season. Hopefully, we still have our best games in front of us going into the zone tournament. All teams are back to a 0-0 record. We will need to come out and continue what has been working for us this season.”
With the regular season coming to its conclusion last weekend, Battle Mountain finished with a 21-5 record and 13-1 in the Northern 2A.
Due to tie-breakers, the White Pine Bobcats will hold the No, 1 seed in the Northern 2A Regional Championships over Battle Mountain who will have the first-round bye as the two seed.
The Lady Longhorns will wait and see who they play on Friday at 3 p.m. at Adobe Middle School in Elko. The Pershing County Mustangs and Silver Stage Nighthawks play on Thursday at 3 p.m.
The winner of the Yerington Lions and Incline Highlanders will play against the White Pine Bobcats on Friday at 6:20 p.m. also at Adobe Middle School.
The championship game is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday at Elko High School.
The two finalists in the regional championship qualify for the state championship tournament in Reno next week at Sparks High School and Lawlor Events Center.
