MCDERMITT — The McDermitt boys basketball squad came home to start its only home games of the year last weekend, taking on Carlin Friday, and then rival Owyhee on Saturday.
The Bulldogs took it to the Railroaders 76-40 on Friday behind Jagger Hinkey’s 26 points and 13 rebounds.
“The first half was pretty close because it was two struggling teams turning the ball over a lot,” said MHS head coach Jack Smith. “They had one good player that we made look really good, and he had a good first half. We didn’t play very well in the first half.”
McDermitt out-scored Carlin 19-10 in the first period and led 36-30 at halftime.
The Bulldogs only allowed Carlin five points per quarter in the second half, while scoring 40 points of their own in the second half for the 76-40 final score.
“In the third quarter I changed things up a little and made some adjustments that seemed to help us," Smith said. "We pulled away a little bit at the end of the third. A lot of it was creating offense off of our defense.”
Ben Draunidalo had 22 points in the contest. Senior Andrew Villalobos grabbed 13 rebounds and his freshman brother Enrique Villalobos had 11 rebounds.
Saturday brought the Owyhee Braves to McDermitt, and the Bulldogs took one on the chin, losing 61-45.
After the first quarter, McDermitt was only down a point 17-16. But, the Braves slowly crept away, leading 30-22 at halftime, and 44-30 after three.
“Owyhee is on an upswing,” said Smith. “Their coach and I are pretty good friends and he has been pretty giddy about his team this year. He has nine guys that he can rotate in and out. He has been teasing me about running ‘my’ press, because I have gotten him pretty good with it in the past; it has kind of been my thing. He has been burning people with it for a couple of weeks now, but he told me after the game that we handled their press better than anyone else that they have played this year.”
McDermitt now sits at 2-17 overall and 1-3 in league play. MHS junior Hinkey is averaging 19 points and seven rebounds per game.
MHS junior Draunidalo is close behind with 16 points and six rebounds each contest on average.
Eureka visits McDermitt on Friday for a 7:30 p.m. tip.
The Bulldogs have several days off before squaring off against Wells on their home court at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 1.
The Bulldogs finish off their only home stand of the year against Jackpot on Feb. 2.
On Feb. 8, McDermitt heads to Carlin and on Feb. 9, they travel to Owyhee. McDermitt finishes the year at Eureka on Feb. 15.
The top four finishers in the Eastern 1A qualify for the Northern 1A Regional Championships in Reno from Feb. 21-23 at Wooster and Hug high schools.
The State Tournament will be held March 1-2 in Las Vegas.
