After trying and failing to re-schedule its game against Carlin due to weather, the McDermitt High School boys basketball team managed to make it to Eureka to play their last game of the regular season.
However, the Bulldogs suffered a 64-55 loss to the Vandals.
“The Carlin game was rescheduled twice,” said MHS coach Jack Smith. “We think Reno (NIAA) is going to make Carlin forfeit the game, as it doesn’t affect the regional standings.”
(The final decision was not available at press time).
The Bulldogs stand at 3-21 overall and hold a 2-7 league record before the NIAA ruling on the Carlin game, which puts them in as the fourth seed at the Northern 1A Regional Tournament.
Against Eureka on Friday, McDermitt kept it close behind Jagger Hinkey’s 32 points and nine rebounds, while Ben Draunidalo added 15 and seven rebounds.
“The Eureka game was the best game that we have played all year," Smith said. "We put together four quarters for the first time. Two things were the difference: they hit their free throws and we missed ours. It was a very good high school basketball game. Jagger fouled out with about three minutes to go, and we were right there until then. We had the shots to win it; a couple of our guys went 0-for-6 and 1-for-6 shooting. But we missed 23 free throws and that hurt us the most. We played well and they played well, the fans got their money’s worth. It was an entertaining game.”
The Bulldogs were just a point behind at the end of the first, and they were only down 35-31 at the half.
But in the third quarter the Vandals outscored McDermitt 14-9 and then tied them in the fourth 15-15 for the eventual 64-55 loss for the Bulldogs.
“We ended on a good note, we played our best game of the year in our last league game," Smith said "That is a momentum builder going into our first game of the playoffs.”
MHS junior Hinkey is averaging 18.5 points per game and 7.7 rebounds, with Draunidalo getting 15.6 and 6.4 boards each contest. Senior Andrew Villalobos adds 6.9 rebounds per game, while his freshman brother Enrique contributes 4.8 in each match.
“I knew that this was going to be a re-building year,” Smith said. “It was tough with my post players trying to be point guards, because my point guard moved away two weeks before the basketball season started. That kind of threw us for a loop. That would have been our third guy that we lacked all year that could have put up 16 points per game and dished the ball to Ben and Jagger.”
Jackpot (10-0), Wells (7-3), Eureka (6-4) and McDermitt (2-7) will face off in the Northern Regional 1A Tournament, beginning on Thursday.
McDermitt is the fourth seed and will take on the No. 1 seed from the Western 1A on Thursday at 8 p.m. at Wooster High School.
The State Tournament will be held in Las Vegas on March 1-2, where the top two finishers in the Regional Tournament will vie for the state title.
