The Lowry High School girls varsity basketball team holds a 9-2 record in league play after taking out North Valleys 51-20 last Friday and Truckee on Saturday 59-50.
“Friday’s game was good against North Valleys,” head coach Melanie Thurmond said. “I felt like we started off a little slow, but then we got into our groove and pulled away. Juli Garcia and Sydney Connors both had 12 points, and Sydney had five boards, four assists and two steals as well. Heather Hall scored eight points and grabbed five boards for us also.”
Lowry jumped out to an 18-5 first quarter lead against the Panthers on Friday and they never looked back, outscoring them 13-6 in the second, and 17-3 in the third. The Lady Bucks pumped the brakes a little in the fourth quarter and North Valleys outscored them 6-3 for the 51-20 final.
The Lady Bucks sit in third place in the Northern 3A Division, behind undefeated Churchill County (Fallon) (12-0) and Spring Creek (10-1). Fernley sits at 7-5, Truckee is 6-5, and Elko has a 5-6 losing record to date on the season. South Tahoe rests at 5-7, North Valleys is 2-9, Dayton has posted a 1-10 record, and Sparks is winless at 0-12.
On Saturday, Lowry had a bit of a slow start against the Wolverines, dropping the first quarter 15-13. But, the Lady Bucks came back strong in the second, outscoring Truckee 15-7 to take a 28-22 lead at the half.
“Truckee was a big game for us on Saturday," Thurmond said. "They were in fourth place in league and they had beaten Fernley by four points; they have been hanging in there with other schools that we have been close with. Going into that game, I knew that we were going to have a challenge and we really had to pull that one out for our league standings.”
Connors led all scorers with 16 points, and Emily Backus scored 11 points in the contest. Becca Kuskie added eight points, three steals, and two blocks.
Lowry took a dip again in the third quarter and gave up 17 points while scoring only 12. But the Lady Bucks turned it on in the fourth, outscoring the Wolverines 19-11 for the 59-50 win.
“It was kind of an up and down game, but we were never behind,” Thurmond said. “We had a 12 point lead and they fought back; we ended up only winning by nine. We beat them by eight points last time, but this was a really solid win. We did a good job of taking care of the basketball.”
Sierra Maestrejuan and Connors lead all Lowry scorers with a nine p.p.g. average on the season and Connors is also grabbing five rebounds per game along with two assists. Garcia is contributing seven points per contest.
Lowry returned home to take on Spring Creek Friday and Elko came to town on Saturday.
Results of the contests were not available at press time.
“Spring Creek is a big game for us,” Thurmond confessed. “We lost to them by two points last time, so all of our goals are focused on that game right now. We didn’t have Sierra the first time that we played them, and it is Winterfest this week, so we are going to have a big crowd at home also. Everything is working in our favor right now.”
The Lady Bucks will take on Churchill County (Fallon) in their last home game of the year at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
A four-game road trip ends the regular season for the Lowry.
The Northern 3A Regional Championships will be held Feb. 21-23 at North Valleys with the top six teams in league play qualifying. The top two teams receive a bye in the opening round.
