Slow starts for the Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team have been commonplace this season and this past weekend was no different for the Longhorns.
Coming off a week without games, Battle Mountain fell behind early to Silver Stage on Friday night and suffered a 52-51 loss to the Nighthawks. Battle Mountain outscored Silver Stage 24-10 in the final eight minutes but it was not enough to complete the comeback.
“It was another one of those games where we weren’t ready to go at the start,” said BMHS coach Roger Wallock. “You can’t expect to turn it on when you want and get a win.”
Silver Stage led 15-12 after the first eight minutes of play and held Battle Mountain to 15 points in the middle two quarters to lead 42-27. Just as it was in the North Tahoe contest a couple weeks ago, the Longhorn rallied in the fourth quarter but fell just short in securing the victory.
Danny Diaz netted 12 points to go with four rebounds, while Aldo Castellanos also added 12 points and had eight rebounds and five steals. DJ Martinez had nine points, Marcus Jury four points and seven rebounds and two blocks and Erik Martinez had four points and four steals.
Yerington gets past Battle Mountain
Saturday’s match-up against Yerington proved to be a game of spurts by both teams, before the Lions pulled away in the second half for a 64-37 win.
Battle Mountain picked up buckets from Diaz, DJ Martinez and Castellanos to keep the game tied at 6-6. However, the Lions ended the opening quarter on a 9-0 run to lead 20-10.
Castellanos brought Battle Mountain within two points at 20-12, as he scored the first eight points of the second quarter. Castellanos scored 12 of the Longhorns’ 17 points in the second quarter. A basket by DJ Martinez tied the game at 27 with 2:22 left in the first half but Yerington scored the final five points of the second quarter and did not trail again.
The Lions used a 15-6 run in the third quarter to go in front 47-33 and continued to pull away in the fourth quarter.
Castellanos posted a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds to go with two steals. Diaz had three assists and Alan Martinez and Marcus Jury each had two steals.
“We had rough shooting nights against both teams,” Wallock said. “Rust coming out of the holiday break maybe but we had too many dry spells where we couldn’t score and that was the difference. We need to regroup and keep working hard and get a couple of wins this week.”
Battle Mountain (1-5 Northern 2A) traveled to Lovelock on Tuesday to take on Pershing County and results were not available at press time.
The Longhorns are home Friday to face Excel Christian and are back on the road Saturday to play Coral Academy.
