The McDermitt High School boys basketball squad traveled to the Rail City Classic Tournament in Sparks last week and fell to the host Sparks Railroaders on Wednesday Dec. 26, starting the tournament on a sour note with a 59-26 loss.
On Thursday, Dec. 27, the Bulldogs squared up against the Merced Bears and couldn’t get them off their backs, going down to a 72-31 defeat.
Merced jumped out to an early 27-8 lead, and tacked on 18 more points in the second to lead 45-15 at the half.
“A four day tournament is a long time,” said MHS boys basketball coach Jack Smith. “Merced was a very good California team, and their coach commented to me that they have more kids in their basketball program than we have in our whole school.”
McDermitt looked forward to taking on Wooster on Friday, Dec. 28. Wooster brought its best effort and beat McDermitt 59-23.
“Ben (Draunidalo) came back to us for the Wooster game, but he was a little rusty," Smith said. "Wooster is having one of its best seasons in 20 years; we made them shoot deep 3’s, but they were making them. When you have five kids on the other team that can all make a bucket, our strong zone defense did not hold up.”
On Saturday, Dec. 29, McDermitt took on the host Railroaders again and fell 86-53 in a tough loss.
“We had the best first quarter we have played all year in our second game against Sparks,” Smith said. “We were ahead after the first quarter and we finally got scoring from three different players; Ben, Jagger (Hinkey), and Angel (Alvarez). They (Sparks) came after us pretty good in the second quarter; they pressed us, and then we could not catch up. We played a good game, and we traded baskets with them for a while; but they ended up creeping away slowly, and they got it up to over 30 at the end.”
The Bulldogs led 19-17 after one, but Sparks scored 32 in the second to McDermitt’s seven, and the Railroaders never looked back from their 49-26 halftime lead.
McDermitt has some time off before they start the new year with a conference game at Wells on Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m.
They head to Jackpot for a Jan. 12 matchup after that.
“The first weekend is a big one,” Smith said. “Wells is always tough, and Jackpot has not gotten beaten at home for a couple of years. They are the best team in our league, so it will be a tough road trip. They have a group of kids that have been together since they were freshmen, and they are a hard-working team. They out hustle you, and they out work you.”
The Bulldogs make their only home stand of the year starting Jan. 18 vs. Carlin at 7:30 p.m. Owyhee visits on Jan. 19 for a 4 p.m. game. On Jan. 25 Eureka comes to town, and on Feb. 1 MHS hosts Wells.
McDermitt hits the road again playing on Feb. 8 at Carlin, then they head off to Owyhee Feb. 9, and the Bulldogs finish the regular season on Feb. 15 at Eureka.
The Northern 1A Regionals will be held Feb. 21-23 at high schools in Reno and the State Tournament starts March 1 in Las Vegas.
