The Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team picked up three wins in a busy week, as the home stretch in the season is upon us.
Battle Mountain was on its home floor on Tuesday, Jan. 28, and came away with a 68-55 win over Wells in the non-conference meeting. The Leopards jumped out to a 19-11 lead in the first quarter, closing out the period on a 12-2 run.
Battle Mountain erased the eight-point deficit and took the lead back at 22-21 after a basket by Aldo Castellanos. The two teams traded buckets the rest of the first half, with the Longhorns leading 31-30 at the break.
The Longhorns led by four points midway through the third quarter, when Wells came back to go in front 41-40. Battle Mountain was able to pull away in the fourth quarter with a 26-14 run.
Castellanos and Austin Behrman paced Battle Mountain with 22 and 16 points, respectively. DJ Martinez and Riley Buller added seven points each, Jay Narramore and Alan Martinez five each and Brock Bullock had four points.
“It was a good game for us and everyone got a lot of playing time,” said BMHS coach Toby Melver. “We were able to practice a bunch of stuff that we had just put in for the second half of the season. With it not being a league game, the result was not as important as getting some good practice. I was very pleased with the way we turned it on the fourth quarter, playing man defense and we took control of the game right to the end.”
Longhorns rout
Mustangs
Battle Mountain hit the road this past Friday to take on Pershing County in Lovelock. After taking a 15-9 advantage in the opening eight minutes of play, the Longhorns used a 13-1 run in the second quarter to pull away and they never looked back.
Narramore and Behrman led a balanced scoring attack with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Behrman, a freshman, also added seven rebounds. Alan Martinez netted eight points, Evan Gonzalez six, Harley Kelley and Bullock four each, Kobe Lake three and Buller two.
“We were able to rest some players who were nursing injuries,” Melver said. “I gave some of players who don’t always get a ton of minutes a chance to show what they could do — they did great. Our defense was good and I was very happy how we ran our offensive sets without some of our starters. Jay had a great game with 14 points on three 3-pointers. Austin was forced into playing some wing and was able to make the adjustment well for us.”
Battle Mountain beats Silver Stage
There was no let down for Battle Mountain on Saturday afternoon, picking up a 70-54 win. The Longhorns held the Nighthawks to single digits in each of the first two quarters and built a 38-17 halftime lead.
“This was the win we needed to get us a spot in the zone tournament,” Melver said. “We still have some work to do to try to get as high a seed as possible, but it was good to go on the road against a scrappy Silver Stage team and play like we did.”
DJ Martinez (27) and Castellanos (24) combined for 51 of Battle Mountain’s 70 points. Alan Martinez added seven points, Buller five, Bullock four, Behrman two and Lake one.
“Our defense led the way from the opening tip and we completely took them out of their offense and were able to get lots of easy baskets that put us up by 21 at halftime,” Melver said. “In the third quarter we came out a bit slow and Silver Stage made us pay. They got it back to within 8 eight points before we regrouped and closed the third quarter out on a little run. We kept our defense up in the fourth quarter and never let them really challenge us again. Our defense up front with DJ, Aldo, Riley and Alan really took away everything Silver Stage wanted to do. Brock keeps improving every game and really anchors the middle of our defense. It was a great team win and now we need to go after a few more to see if we can sneak up in the standings.”
Battle Mountain is fourth in the Northern 2A at 7-5, while Incline leads the league at 12-0. North Tahoe is second at 10-2 and West Wendover (8-4) is third. White Pine holds the fifth spot at 6-6 and Yerington and Silver Stage are tied for sixth at 4-7.
The top six teams qualify for the Northern 2A Regional Championships in Lovelock on Feb. 20-22. The top two teams receive first-round byes.
Battle Mountain wraps up its home schedule this weekend, starting with West Wendover on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and White Pine on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
