The Lowry High School boys basketball team took a hard loss against Churchill County (Fallon) on Tuesday in its last home game of the season 73-51 on Pat Hart Court.
The Buckaroos got off to a quick start, leading 23-10 after eight minutes of play but it was all Fallon after that. The Greenwave outscored the Buckaroos 63-28 in the final three quarters to solidify second place in the Northern 3A at 13-2.
“The first quarter was amazing,” said LHS head varsity boys basketball coach Chad Peters. “On senior night the guys came out and played great at the start, but the second, third, and fourth quarters were horrible. We just quit, and that is what I am upset about. We played good for about four minutes in the second period; then we kind of got in “La La Land” mentally, and we made some silly mistakes. I might have put some bad line-ups on the floor as a coach. I take 50 percent of the responsibility for that, because I am the guy that let us have three bad quarters; but we scored 23 in the first quarter and only scored 28 in the rest of the game.
After jumping out to a 13-point lead in the first quarter, Lowry held on for a 37-34 advantage at halftime. From there it was all Greenwave, as Fallon came out of the break with a 19-8 run to go in front 53-47. The Greenwave continued to pull away in the second half with a 20-6 run in the fourth quarter.
“We got out of running our stuff and doing what we do. We quit doing the things that we have had success with,” Peters said. “I am really disappointed with our effort tonight because we lost sight of what we were doing to be successful.”
Lowry sits at 13-7 overall and 10-4 in league play, which leaves them in third place in the Northern 3A standings, behind undefeated Elko (14-0) and Churchill County (Fallon) (13-2). South Tahoe, Dayton, and Fernley are tied for fourth place at 8-6. North Valleys and Spring Creek are trailing at 4-10, Truckee is sitting at 1-12, and Sparks (0-14) is winless on the year.
“We have two of the strongest guys in the league, so our games should be a little more physical, but we lost all of our energy tonight,” Peters said. “We can’t hang our heads when other teams make good runs against us; we have to fix that somehow.”
The Buckaroos finish off the season on the road, going to South Tahoe on Friday for a 7:30 p.m. tip and then travel to Dayton on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Fernley hosts Lowry on Feb. 15, and the regular season ends for the Buckaroos on Feb. 16 at Sparks.
The 3A Class Northern Division Championships will be held Feb. 21-23 at North Valleys High School in Reno. The top two teams receive a bye in the first round and top six teams qualify for the tournament.
