With just three returning players and nine new girls on the roster, the Lowry High School girls basketball team is still trying to land on its feet in the early part of the season.
The Lady Bucks began the year with three games against 4A schools and a league opener in Fernley, which figures to be one of the best teams in the Northern 3A. Lowry went 1-3 in that stretch, beating Galena.
Lowry had a chance to work on a few things that it installed in practice and used that to beat Sparks 57-12 on Saturday afternoon in Winnemucca.
The Lady Bucks improved to 1-1 in the Northern 3A and 2-2 overall.
“We needed that today,” said LHS coach Melanie Thurmond. “Last year, we had a little bit longer to prepare for our league opener and put things in. We started a few days earlier this year with Fernley but that wasn’t all of our problem against them. These last couple days allowed me to finally put in a zone press. Our defense played well today.”
Lowry held Sparks to just one field goal in the first half and led 40-5 at halftime. The Lady Bucks scored the first 23 points of the game, when the Railroaders knocked down their lone field goal of the first half as time expired in the first quarter.
“It was a good chance for us to just sit back and execute,” Thurmond said. “We have a young team, so I am trying to see what works and develop them as players. Also, it’s still early and we are looking to see who works well together.”
Lowry picked up baskets from Carly Capellen, Emily Backus, Jovi Kuskie and Sierra Maestrejuan in the first eight minutes of play. The Lady Bucks pressure defense led to a number of easy baskets.
Lowry outscored Sparks 17-3 in the second quarter, with all of the Railroaders’ points coming from the free throw line.
Emika Viscarra’s basket with 1:01 left in the first half gave the Lady Bucks a 40-5 advantage and the game was played with a running clock the remainder of the way.
A 3-pointer by Capellen gave Lowry a 51-11 lead at the end of the third quarter and the Lady Bucks outscored the Railroaders 6-1 in the final eight minutes.
Maestrejuan paced Lowry with 14 points. Backus added nine, Petersen eight, Viscarra seven, Capellen five, Kuskie four, Hannah Whitted and Macy DeLong three each and Bailee Brinkerhoff and had two points apiece.
Lowry hits the road for the first time in league play and travels to Truckee on Friday for a 6 p.m. tip and North Valleys on Friday for a 6 p.m. start.
“Truckee is going to be a tough game,” added the coach. “They have a couple of their good players back. They always play tough and can pick off teams. They beat Spring Creek, when it took us zone to do that. I like our progress. We are starting to execute and getting some scoring from other players that we have been missing.”
