The McDermitt High School girls basketball team was set to play at Carlin last Thursday but the game was cancelled due to weather.
“I had a long conversation with the NIAA last week, and they assured me that if we took out Eureka that the Carlin game did not need to happen. They would call it and force a forfeit,” said MHS coach Jaimi Wilkinson. “Hopefully they come through on that, what with it being a weekend and a holiday on Monday. Going to Carlin on Tuesday and back to Reno on Thursday would not be fair to my kids, especially when we did everything that we could to get to Carlin to play that game.”
On Friday night, Eureka High School hosted the Lady Bulldogs’ regular season finale.
Eureka was no match for McDermitt, going down 58-39 in a game where the Lady Bulldogs took an early lead and never looked back.
“Our defense was the difference in winning that game," Wilkinson said. "We made some big changes at half-time and my kids responded. Eureka only had seven points in the fourth quarter, and they were all on free throws. The girls played with each other and for each other; it was a fun game. It is always fun to win on the road.”
McDermitt jumped out to a 12-7 first quarter lead, and held on to a 36-21 halftime advantage.
The Lady Bulldogs outscored Eureka 20-11 in the third quarter and 12-7 in the fourth.
“Kalli (Sam) had a terrific game for us,” Wilkinson said. “She scored at pivotal points in the game. Jasmine (Northrup) did a bang up job on defense for us and so did Meianah (Bitt). We put her out on top as much as we possibly could against their point guard and it showed; she did not score very many points against us. She makes life pretty hard on them.”
Masters is leading the Lady Bulldogs with 25 points and 15 rebounds per contest. Crutcher has 10 points and four rebounds per contest. Masters is currently number 70 in the nation in scoring average on Maxpreps.com.
In the 1A East girls basketball standings, Eureka (5-3) and Owyhee (5-3) tied for second place and Wells finished at 2-6.
McDermitt will face off against Sierra Lutheran on Thursday at 6:20 p.m. at Wooster High School. If the Lady Bulldogs win, they play the winner of Whittell and Owyhee on Friday at 3 p.m. at Wooster.
The championship game is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday.
“This season has been a blast,” Wilkinson concluded. “In August we were not sure if we were going to be able to floor a team. We worked really hard in the pre-season trying to get all of the kids eligible. We kept them in the classroom for four hours every week after school tutoring them to make sure that they were able to play. I have had some really good moments with them off of the court, which has been fun, especially since it is my last year coaching. I have been super-impressed with the way that this team has come together and helped each other get better.”
