The Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team started a new era under first-year coach Toby Melver with two wins at the Serpent Classic last weekend in Hawthorne.
The Longhorns opened the tournament with a 50-46 loss to Spring Mountain on Thursday. Battle Mountain led 17-12 at halftime, only to see Spring Mountain rally for 38 points in the second half.
DJ Martinez paced the Longhorns with 19 points and three rebounds, while sophomore Jay Narramore netted nine points. Freshmen Austin Behrman added six points and six rebounds and Junior Vasquez and Kobe Lake each had four points.
“We came out real strong against a good opponent,” said Melver. “Their size and outside shooting wore us down as the game went on and we couldn't hold on in the end.”
In the second game of the day on Thursday, Sierra Lutheran jumped out to a 21-4 halftime lead and won 45-25.
Martinez had 11 points and three rebounds for the Longhorns and Vasquez added four points. Brock Bullock, Alan Martinez and Narramore each had three points and Lake one. Behrman had a team-high five rebounds and Bullock and Lake each grabbed four rebounds
“It was the second game of the day and we came out real tired and sluggish and couldn't shake it off,” Melver said.
Battle Mountain collected its first win of the year in its opening game on Friday, beating Bishop Union (Bishop, Calif.) 67-60. The Longhorns led by as many as 20 points in the first half.
DJ Martinez (25) and Behrman (15) combined for 40 of the Longhorns’ 67 points. Lake netted nine points, Martinez eight, Aldo Castellanos seven and Bullock two. Behrman finished with a double-double, grabbing 11 rebounds. Bullock had nine rebounds and Lake had eight boards.
“We got off to a great start,” Melver said. “We got up by 20 in the first half. Bishop closed to 10 points at halftime. We came out and took control again early in the second half and withstood a Bishop rally to hold on for the seven-point win.
In the second game on Friday, Battle Mountain rallied from a 17-point deficit in the first half to make it close against host Mineral County, only to see the Serpents hold on for a 53-46 win.
DJ Martinez had a team-high 23 points, while Behrman added seven. Castellanos, Bullock and Alan Martinez had four points apiece and Lake had three.
“It was our best overall game of the weekend,” said the coach. “Even though we lost, we worked really hard on defense and made Hawthorne take tough shots, which they made a lot of in the first half. We were down by 17 at halftime and the boys came out and continued to work hard on defense and rebounding and we were able to close the game to within seven at the end.
Battle Mountain closed out the tournament with a 67-36 win over Smith Valley. The Longhorns led 35-24 at halftime and held the Bulldogs to 12 points in the second half.
DJ Martinez and Behrman paced Battle Mountain with 21 and 16 points, respectively. DJ Martinez had 99 points in five games.
“We only had seven players available due to injuries and other circumstances,” Melver said. “It’s hard to play five games in three days with only seven players, but the boys played great. We figured some things out as a team, which is always the purpose of these preseason tournaments. We are looking forward to getting a player or two back next week as we head to the Comstock Classic in Virginia City. Brock, Kobe and Austin are undersized but rebounded with the taller teams and kept us in the games. They battled extremely hard on the boards all weekend.”
Battle Mountain is in Virginia City this weekend for the Comstock Classic. The Longhorns make their home debut on Friday, Dec. 20, against Incline at 6:30 p.m. and North Tahoe on Saturday, Dec. 21, at 3:30 p.m.
