It was a tale of two completely different games for the Lowry High School boys basketball team last weekend.
On Friday, against South Tahoe the Buckaroos came in strong and got stronger as the game went on.
The Buckaroos were tied with the Vikings after the first quarter 12-12 but used a 14-0 run in the second quarter to lead 26-12 at the half.
South Tahoe outscored Lowry 19-18 in the third, but the Buckaroos took out the Vikings 19-11 in the fourth for the 63-42 final.
“We played pretty good on Friday night against South Tahoe," said LHS coach Chad Peters. "Oscar (Juanes) was pretty sick, but he played anyway and did a really nice job defensively. We started out down 7-0, but we battled back and ended up winning by 21."
Kobe Stoker paced Lowry with 16 points, while Dorsey Naveran and Max Mavity each scored 10 points.
Brendan Domire added five points and Scottie Smith, Michael Casalez, JJ Backus and Juanes each netted four points.
"We outscored them 14-0 in the second quarter," Peters said. "I don’t care who you are playing, that is a great quarter. We had a really great game from Kobe (Stoker), he shot the ball very well. We had 10 from Max and 10 from Dorsey. Almost every player scored. The last time that we played them it was a close game (75-67), but this time we kind of pulled away.”
In a low-scoring affair on Saturday, Dayton took down the Bucks 25-22.
“We were winning 5-4 after the first quarter,” Peters said. “In the second we shot 1-for-11 and fell behind. Oscar did not play and Dorsey’s shoe broke, so he had to play in his street shoes. We usually don’t average more than six or seven three point shots a game, but we were 3-for-27 from three."
Lowry was held to two points in the second quarter, as Dayton grabbed a 13-7 halftime advantage.
"They sat in a 2-3 zone defense and stalled on offense," added the coach. "They dared us to shoot from outside and we did. They were not going to let us get the ball to Kobe and Dorsey inside. We took good shots, but we had a really, really bad night shooting. 20 percent from the floor is not going to win any games for you.”
The Buckaroos cut the deficit to 17-15 after three quarters of play but the Dust Devils continued to stall in the second half.
“We are still in third place in league, and we need to play in games like that to figure out what we need to do to get better," Peters said
Lowry now sits at 14-8 overall and 11-5 in league play, which gives them a lock on third place in the Northern 3A standings.
The Buckaroos finish off the season on the road. Fernley hosts Lowry on Friday for a 7:30 p.m tip. The regular season ends for the Buckaroos on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in Sparks.
Elko is still undefeated (16-0) and Churchill County (Fallon) (14-2) is comfortably in second place.
Fernley is out of reach of catching Lowry with their 9-6 record, as are Dayton (9-7) and South Tahoe (8-7). Spring Creek is 5-11 and North Valleys is 5-12, putting them both out of playoff contention with only two games remaining.
Truckee is sitting at 2-14, and Sparks (0-15) is winless on the year.
The Northern 3A Regional 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.
