he Lowry High School boys basketball team returned home last weekend after taking a couple of tough losses on the road the week before.
Pat Hart Court was just what the Bucks needed apparently, as they took down Fernley 60-41 on Friday, Jan. 18, and then dispatched Sparks 63-23 on Saturday, Jan. 19.
“We came out and played with great intensity for four quarters," said LHS coach Chad Peters after the win. "We won offensively in all four quarters, which is good; we haven’t done that in a long time. We also did a nice job of letting our defense lead to our offense. Guys were getting their hands on balls and then getting out and running. We just sat down and played some really good man to man defense in the first half. In the second half we went a little more to our zone.”
Lowry jumped out to a 13-6 lead in the first quarter against the Vaqueros and the Bucks led 30-17 at the half.
“Dorsey (Naveran) stayed inside and he was a monster on the boards,” Peters said. “They tried to take Kobe (Stoker) away inside, which opened up some shots for our guys on the outside, and we had some guys knock down some outside shots tonight.”
Stoker led all scorers with 15 and also grabbed nine rebounds.
"We started J.J. (Backus) tonight, and we did not tell him he was starting until the last minute, because we did not really know what we were going to do," Peters said. "We told him to just come out and play, show us what you do in practice; you are a sophomore on the varsity team, you are here for a reason. He had no turnovers and scored 10 points. For a sophomore in his first home start in Winnemucca, that is great production. I am very proud of him.”
Peters confided that the Bucks have a new defensive specialist. “We told Oscar (Juanes) that from now on he is going to guard the other team’s best guy every night," added the coach "‘You have the hardest job before every game even starts, so if you score, that is great.’ He didn’t score tonight, but who cares; he did exactly what we asked him to do.”
Summing up the game on Friday Peters said, “I am really proud of everybody making smart decisions tonight and starting the game well on defense. We held them to 17 points in the first half. That is awesome and very hard to do in high school basketball.”
Lowry beat Sparks 61-25 back in November at the Railroad Shootout Tournament but Peters was taking nothing for granted when the Railroaders came to town on Saturday.
“We told the kids that we can’t think about what we have already done to them, we have to keep building on what we are doing right," said the coach. "As far as we are concerned it is a fresh slate against Sparks.”
The Bucks took care of business with their 63-23 victory to move them to 7-2 in league play on the season and 10-5 overall.
“We played well," Peters said. "We got a lot of guys a lot of minutes and they all did a really nice job. We had a running clock for the entire second half. Klay (Garner) had 12 points and a couple of steals and he was 4-5 from the floor. Scottie (Smith) and Brendan (Domire) both had 13 points. It is nice to be able to give Kobe and Dorsey a rest. Klay is the new guy, and for him to come in and play like that really helps us. We need to get him some good minutes so he is more experienced for next year.”
Stoker leads all Lowry scorers for the season, averaging 14 points per game while grabbing eight rebounds per contest. Naveran adds 8 points per game to his team high 11 rebounds, and Domire rounds out the top three Buck scorers with 8 per match.
North Valleys hosted Lowry on Friday and the Bucks go to Truckee on Saturday for 2:30 p.m. tip
“We are halfway through the league season and we are 7-2,” Peters said. “This weekend is huge for us. We have to get a win at North Valleys and Truckee. We are going to keep plugging along, one game at a time and go from there. Hopefully we will stay in the top six, finish it up, and make the regionals.”
Lowry returns home to take on Spring Creek Feb. 1, and Elko comes to town on Feb. 2.
They will take on Churchill County (Fallon) in their last home game of the year on Feb. 5.
A four-game road trip ends the regular season for the Bucks, going to South Tahoe Feb. 8, Dayton Feb. 9, Fernley Feb. 15 and Sparks Feb. 16.
