The Lowry High School girls basketball team went out of town to finish off their season in style last weekend.
On Friday, Feb. 15, at Fernley the Lady Bucks started a little slow, but they held on to grab a 65-60 win against the Vaqueros.
“We felt like we were in control for the entire game,” said LHS coach Melanie Thurmond. “It was up and down, but we were never down by more than a couple of points. Rachel Garrison stepped up big for us, she had 13 points and ten rebounds.”
Lowry was down 19-16 at the end of one quarter and trailed 33-29 at the half. However, they poured it on in the third quarter, outscoring Fernley 23-12, and they held on through the fourth for the win.
Freshman Emily Backus led all scorers with 16 points and senior Sydney Connors added 14.
On Saturday, Feb. 16, Lowry traveled to Sparks to finish out their regular season, and the Lady Bucks took care of business with a 62-19 victory.
“Sparks has definitely improved since the first game that we played against them when they only scored two points," Thurmond said. "Everyone got a lot of playing time against this crew, even the two JV players that I brought up to finish the season with us (Jovi Kuskie and Hannah Whitted).”
Sierra Maestrejuan had 10 points and five steals. Connors, Victoria Tirado, and Juli Garcia all had nine points. Connors added eight rebounds, three steals, and three assists.
“Jovi had eight points and five boards,” Thurmond said. “It was kind of neat because I was able to let the sisters Becca (Kuskie) and Jovi play together when they were in for the entire time. We are playing with three freshmen right now, and overall, everyone played very well.”
Lowry (15-9 overall and 14-4 in league) finished in third place in the Northern 3A Division, and they took on Elko in the opening round of the regional tournament on Thursday.
The top two teams (Fallon and Spring Creek) in the Northern 3A Division received a bye in the first round.
“I feel really good about playing Elko first to get that extra game in,” Thurmond said. “We are going to get extra shots up at the rim on that court, and that will hopefully help us shoot better the second night against Spring Creek.”
If the Lady Bucks garnered a win on Thursday, they advanced to take on No. 2 seed Spring Creek on Friday. The results of the contests were not available at press time.
I have a good feeling about Spring Creek," Thurmond said. "We just have to show up, play hard, and see what happens.”
The winner of that contest took on the winner of the Churchill County (Fallon) and/or Fernley/Truckee match-up on Saturday. The results of this contest were not available at press time.
Churchill County (Fallon) finished the season undefeated at 17-0 and Spring Creek grabbed second place at 15-3. Truckee took the fourth seed behind Lowry at 12-5, and Fernley finished 10-8. Elko secured the final seed in the playoffs with their 8-10 record.
Connors leads the Lady Bucks with 10 points per game on average during the regular season, while grabbing 4.8 boards as well.
Maestrejuan was close behind with a 9.9 scoring average and contributed 3.3 rebounds. Juli Garcia was the next highest scorer with 7 per game, followed by Backus at 5.9 ppg. Seniors Kuskie (5.0), Heather Hall (4.5) and Garrison (4.1) were next in line, with Garrison hauling in four rebounds per game as well.
The NIAA State Championships will be held in Las Vegas on March 1-2 with the two finalists in the regional tournament advancing to play at the Orleans Arena.
