The Lowry High School girls basketball squad went to South Tahoe on Friday, Feb. 8 and took out the Vikings 64-40.
Lowry outscored the Vikings 15-12 in the first quarter, and they stretched the lead to 29-20 at half.
“We came out really sluggish against South Tahoe on Friday,” said LHS coach Melanie Thurmond. “I don’t know if it was because they were on the bus for five hours and then had to sit and watch three games before they played, but it felt like we had no legs. It seemed to be a closer game than I thought it would be. If Sydney (Connors) doesn’t catch fire, it is a close game.”
Connors scored 21 points for the Lady Bucks and Becca Kuskie added another 15. A strong push in the second half saw the Lady Bucks outscore South Tahoe 35-20 for the win.
“Becca had a really good game and Sierra (Maestrejuan) was steady for both games with seven points in each," added the coach.
Lady Bucks roll
past Dust Devils
On Saturday, Feb. 9, against Dayton the Lady Bucks crushed the Dust Devils 63-19.
Lowry jumped out to a 16-3 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
“Dayton is kind of at the bottom of our league, so what we did with that game was work on something that I hopefully have in store for Spring Creek and kind of roll that out," Thurmond said. "I rotated two teams of five against Dayton and it went really well. Everyone scored, everyone got involved. Good things happened.”
Connors scored 18 points and Rachel Garrison had six points and grabbed seven rebounds to pace Lowry.
Freshman Emily Backus had nine points.
The final two games of the league season for Lowry were in Fernley on Friday, and then they traveled to Sparks for the regular season finale today for a 1 p.m. tip. Results of the contests were not available at press time.
“We didn’t have any problems with Sparks last time, they only scored two points the whole game," Thurmond said. "We have to come out strong against Fernley on their home court, it is their senior night. They are having a “black out” so we are going to have the fans against us, we are going to have to go out and execute.”
Lowry (12-4) will finish in third place in the Northern 3A Division, and the top six teams advance to the regional competition.
The Northern 3A Regional Championships will be held Feb. 21-23 at North Valleys High School in Reno. The top two teams (Fallon and Spring Creek) will receive a bye in the first round.
Churchill County (Fallon) is undefeated at 16-0 and Spring Creek is in second place at 13-3. Truckee is waiting in the wings behind Lowry at 11-5 and Fernley sits at 10-6.
Elko and South Tahoe are both 6-10, followed by North Valleys (4-13), Dayton (2-14), and Sparks (0-15).
“We are looking forward to the postseason," said the coach. "We could play either Elko or South Tahoe, it depends on how they end their seasons. I don’t mind being in third place right now, because that gives us one game before we have to play Spring Creek. The more shots that you get up in that gym, maybe more shots will drop on that second night. I am feeling good about how we are sitting right now. My theory is that the third game in the playoffs is the hardest one to get, so we are going in with that attitude.”
LHS senior Connors is leading the Lady Bucks with 9.9 points per game on average, while grabbing 4.7 boards as well.
Maestrejuan also has a 9.9 scoring average and contributes 3.3 rebounds. Juli Garcia is the next highest scorer at 6.9, followed by Backus at 5.6 ppg. Seniors Kuskie (5.3), Heather Hall (4.5), and Garrison (3.6) are next in line, with Garrison hauling in four rebounds per game as well.
The NIAA 3A State Tournament will be held at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on March 1-2.
