SPARKS — A year after playing in the state tournament, the Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team was looking to get back to the ultimate prize but would need help getting there.
The Longhorns nearly accomplished the Cinderella feat, only to come up short in the semifinals of the Northern 2A Regional Championship at Sparks High School this past weekend.
Battle Mountain needed a 65-62 win over White Pine last Wednesday in a play-in game to get into the tournament. Battle Mountain pulled off an upset on Thursday afternoon, beating Yerington 58-53 in overtime to keep its season alive.
The Longhorns continued the improbable run into Friday’s semifinal and was within a point of Incline in the fourth quarter, before the Highlanders pulled away in the final minute to win 57-49 and end the Longhorns’ season at 14-15.
“It was tough because we didn’t even know until Tuesday night that we had to play White Pine the next day to get into the zone tournament,” said BMHS coach Roger Wallock.
BMHS falls to Incline
In the two regular season meetings, Battle Mountain lost by 29 and 24 points, respectively to Incline. However, postseason basketball is a different animal and the third contest went down to the final seconds.
A 3-pointer by Aldo Castellanos gave Battle Mountain its lone lead of the first half at 3-2, as both teams traded buckets for much of the first eight minutes of play.
The Highlanders netted the first seven points of the second quarter to lead 17-9. Trailing 22-13, Battle Mountain used two 3-pointers from DJ Martinez and another by Danny Diaz to cut the margin to 24-22. A put back basket by Castellanos allowed Battle Mountain to tie the game at 24 at halftime.
The Longhorns were out in front for much of the third quarter, starting with three free throws by Alex Valles to start the second half.
A bucket by Castellanos capped off a 17-5 run that gave Battle Mountain a 29-24 lead, but Incline would come back to score the final six points of the third quarter to go in front 42-39.
After Battle Mountain cut the gap to a point at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Incline rallied for six straight points to push the advantage back to 48-42.
A 3-pointer by Valles and a basket by Roy Chavira trimmed the lead to 50-49 with 4:00 left, but the Longhorns did not score again.
Behind four straight free throws from Incline, the Highlanders pushed the lead to 54-49 and the Longhorns turned the ball over on consecutive possessions to end the comeback.
Martinez had 14 points and three assists, while Chavira added 13 points and six rebounds. Marcus Jury, Valles and Diaz each had two assists and Castellanos added two steals.
“We were so close to making it to state,” Wallock said. “We had so much confidence from the last couple of games that we played our best basketball of the year against a very good and well coached Incline team. We just didn’t score the last couple minutes of the game and that was the difference.”
Longhorns stun Lions in overtime
Just like with Incline, Battle Mountain lost both regular season games to Yerington by double figures.
However, the Longhorns rallied to prevent a third loss with a 58-53 win in overtime on Thursday.
Battle Mountain dominated the start of the game and only trailed 2-0 in the first half, before frustrating the Lions for 16 minutes.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Erik Martinez and Diaz gave Battle Mountain a 15-4 lead in the first quarter.
DJ Martinez got into the 3-point act in the second quarter and added two more buckets to keep the Longhorns in front 25-13.
After everything went wrong for Yerington in the first half, it was just the opposite in the third quarter, as the Lions came out on fire in the third quarter.
Yerington hit basket after basket and capped off a 19-4 run to lead 34-31. Valles stopped the bleeding for Battle Mountain and nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game at 34 going into the fourth quarter.
Valles and Chavira kicked off the fourth quarter with consecutive 3-pointers to give the Longhorns a six-point lead.
However in the final three minutes of regulation, Yerington scored five points in a row to go up 48-47. The Lions had a chance to extend the gap to three points with 28 seconds to play, but made just 1-of-2 foul shots.
That allowed Diaz time to tie the game with two free throws with :06 to play. After two timeouts by Yerington, the Lions threw the ball away after the second stoppage. Battle Mountain nearly won in regulation after a steal but the layup went off the rim.
The Longhorns quickly took a four-point advantage in overtime after a 3-point play by DJ Martinez and Battle Mountain hung from there.
Diaz paced the Longhorns with 16 points, five assists and three steals. DJ Martinez had 14 points and three steals. Castellanos grabbed 12 rebounds to go with three assists and Jury had nine rebounds.
“This was a hard-fought game with us jumping to a big lead early,” Wallock said. “Then Yerington made a comeback, actually taking the lead for a moment. We normally would have not handled the adversity very well but for the first time all year, we fought back and overcame. Again Danny made clutch free throws in the fourth and OT (8/8) to seal the win.”
BMHS gets past
White Pine
Battle Mountain earned its way into the tournament with a 13-point win over White Pine.
The contest was close throughout, when Battle Mountain made free throws in the final minutes. The Longhorns led by just three points, until outscoring the Bobcats 21-11 in the fourth quarter.
Diaz finished with 20 points, while DJ Martinez added 20 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Jury netted 12 points, while Castellanos had six rebounds and four assists. Valles had four assist and Erik Martinez swiped two steals.
“The guys responded well and only had five turnovers in the first postseason game ever for all but two of my players,” added the coach. “Danny and DJ sealed the game with clutch free throws down the stretch, Danny hitting 8-of-8.”
Battle Mountain graduates seven players off its roster including DJ Martinez, Erik Martinez, Nestor Miramontes, Jace Clark, Roberto Esparza, Jury and Diaz.
“What a strange season,” Wallock said. “So many frustrating and close losses that these guys could have just given up and looked forward to baseball season. However, they continued to come to practice and meetings with a determination to get better and qualify for post season and that’s exactly what they did. All a coach can ask for is kids who always work hard, are dedicated to each other as teammates, and to see improvement by the end of the year. This team will always be special to me because they did all three of those things.”
