The Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team picked up a much-needed victory in Tahoe City, Calif., on Friday against North Tahoe.
The Longhorns avenged an earlier loss to the Lakers in Battle Mountain when North Tahoe hit a shot at the buzzer to win.
This time, Battle Mountain rallied for a 45-26 win to keep its playoff hopes alive. A loss would have eliminated the Longhorns from playoff contention.
“We had a must win situation with the North Tahoe game,” said BMHS coach Roger Wallock. “We lose and we are eliminated from postseason. The guys played so hard and handled the pressure of the situation to pull off a hard fought victory. It was nice to see our defense continue to keep us competitive even when we still are not scoring a lot of points.”
North Tahoe held a 10-7 lead after a quarter of play but Battle Mountain rallied to go in front 25-24 at halftime. The Longhorns led a two-point lead after three quarters of play but out-scored the Lakers 12-5 in the final eight minutes.
DJ Martinez and Danny Diaz paced Battle Mountain with 11 points each. Diaz also grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double. Aldo Castellanos was also in double figures with 10 points and Marcus Jury had four blocks and three rebounds.
Incline knocks off
Battle Mountain
On Thursday night, Battle Mountain was in Incline and lost 64-40 to the Highlanders.
Incline held a 17-10 advantage after a quarter of play, but used a 23-8 run in the third quarter to pull away for the win.
Martinez had 22 points and six rebounds for the Longhorns. Jury grabbed six rebounds and Diaz had four steals and three assists.
“We really played pretty good defensive all weekend,” Wallock said. “We battled with Incline the whole game, really showing that we can play with good teams when we are clicking. However, we just can't score enough points to compete an entire game.”
West Wendover leads the league at 13-1, while Incline is just a half game back at 12-1. Yerington (11-2) is third and Silver Stage (8-5) is fourth. White Pine (6-8) and North Tahoe (5-8) are fifth and sixth, respectively. Battle Mountain is seventh at 4-10.
The top six teams qualify for the Northern 2A Regional Championships at Sparks High School from Feb. 21-23. The top two teams receive first round byes.
Battle Mountain hosted Pershing County on Tuesday and results were not available at press time.
The Longhorns are back home Friday to play Mineral County at 7:30 p.m. and Coral Academy 3:30 p.m.
