If you take away Churchill County, the remaining five spots for the Northern 3A playoffs can be thrown into a hat and come out in any order in three weeks from now.
The Lowry High School girls basketball team improved its chances at first-round bye in the regional tournament next month but still has a lot of work to do to accomplish that feat.
The Lady Bucks picked up two road wind this past weekend on the road, beating Dayton 61-30 on Friday and South Tahoe 60-9 on Saturday. Lowry moved into a three-way tie for second place in the Northern 3A at 7-3 with Fernley and Spring Creek. However, the Lady Bucks are fourth after losses to Fernley and Spring Creek earlier in the season. Elko and Truckee are tied for fifth place at 5-5.
Lowry crushes
South Tahoe
Lowry showed it could score points in bunches in a short amount of time. Fueled by their press, the Lady Bucks raced out to an 11-0 lead three minutes into the contest. Senior Kepa Bengochea scored eight of those points off of steals.
After a short scoring drought, Lowry closed out the first quarter with 12 points in 62 seconds, aided by two 3-point field goals from Alyssa Kuskie. Brooke Hansen and Sierra Maestrejuan added baskets, as Lowry led 24-1 at the end of the first quarter.
After back-to-back layups by Sydney Connors and Heather Hall to start the second quarter, South Tahoe banked in a 3-point shot for its first field goal of the game with 5:51 left in the quarter. That would be the only field goal of the first half for the Vikings.
Kuskie added her third 3-point shot of the first half to give Lowry a 37-4 lead, before taking a 37-5 advantage into halftime.
A layup by Connors with 6:06 left in the third quarter gave Lowry a 41-5 lead and created a running clock for the rest of the game under the NIAA 35-point mercy rule. The Lady Bucks outscored the Vikings 15-4 in the third quarter, picking up a fourth 3-pointer from Kuskie and a pair of baskets by Maestrejuan.
Lowry held South Tahoe scoreless in the fourth quarter and picked up six points from Hansen in the final eight minutes of play.
Kuskie and Bengochea each outscored South Tahoe with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Hansen and Maestrejuan each scored eight points and Connors added six and Shelby Garrison, Hall and Sappington had four points apiece.
Lady Bucks rout
Dust Devils
Lowry began the weekend with a 31-point win at Dayton on Friday night, spoiling the Dust Devils’ Winterfest night.
The Lady Bucks raced out to a 22-7 advantage in the first quarter on the strength of a balanced scoring attack from Bengochea, Garrison, Sappington and Hansen.
Rachel Garrison added four points in the second quarter and Connors knocked down a 3-pointer for her only points of the night to give Lowry a 38-15 lead at halftime. Hailey Fernandez, Bengochea and Hansen each had four points in the third quarter and Kuskie knocked down a long-distance shot to increase the margin to 53-22.
Twelve players scored for Lowry, with Bengochea pacing the squad with 12 points — all in the first three quarters. Hansen netted eight points, Rachel Garrison seven, Fernandez six, Kuskie five, Shelby Garrison, Hall, Sappington and Maestrejuan four each, Connors three and Victoria Tirado two.
Lowry will look to extend its winning streak this weekend with two home games. The Lady Bucks take on Sparks on Friday at 6 p.m. and Truckee on Saturday at 1 p.m.
