Winterfest is usually one of the toughest weeks to get a basketball team ready to play a couple of games on its home floor.
The Lowry High School boys could not afford an upset loss after dropping two of its previous three games. Any chances of a let down were avoided, as Lowry beat North Valleys 62-46 on Friday night and Truckee 59-38 on Saturday afternoon.
“The thing I was most pleased with was that we didn’t let the distractions get to us,” said LHS coach Chad Peters. “We didn’t practice in our gym all week, you have stuff going on all week. We didn’t let that affect us and we got two wins in what could have been trap games for us. We haven’t been playing that well the last couple weeks and needed these wins.”
In the win over North Valleys, Lowry used 3-pointers from Preston Snow and Michael Casalez to build an early 10-5 lead in the first quarter. The Buckaroos eventually stretched the advantage to 13-7 after eight minutes of play after a jumper by Chance Huitt and a free throw by Klay Garner.
The Buckaroos opened up a 17-9 advantage in the second quarter after a basket by JJ Backus, but the Panthers did not go away. The Reno school countered with 8-2 run to cut the Lowry lead to 19-17.
However, the Buckaroos regrouped to score the final five points of the first half, four of those by Kobe Stoker to lead 24-17.
“It feels good to get a couple wins.” Stoker said. “Winterfest gives you a lot of distractions during the week. Coming off a tough loss to Fernley we regrouped at Sparks then got two good wins here.”
Lowry continued to build its momentum, scoring nine of the first 11 points in the third quarter, with five of those coming from Garner.
North Valleys was able trim the deficit to single digits at 33-24, when Max Mavity knocked down a 3-pointer for the Buckaroos to start a 9-3 run and give Lowry a 42-27 lead.
Lowry maintained its double-digit lead throughout the fourth quarter and led by as many as 19 points, before settling for the 16-point win.
Stoker and Garner paced Lowry with 18 and 13 points, respectively. Backus added seven points, Mavity six, Snow three, Anthony Hemp and Huitt two each and Anthony Gildone one.
“I think the offense works a lot better, when we can get the ball inside and kick back out,” Garner said. “It opens up the offense for us down low.”
Stoker added that defenses start collapsing on the post players, which opens up the game for Lowry’s shooters.
Lowry rolls
past Truckee
Lowry was back on the floor Saturday afternoon and overcame a hot-shooting Truckee squad in the first quarter. The Wolverines knocked down three-3 pointers to stay within four points of the Buckaroos, 13-9, after eight minutes of play.
Truckee tied the game at 14 with 3:25 to play, but it was all Lowry after that. The Buckaroos scored the final 11 points of the first half, aided by a 3-pointer by Backus and steal and layups by Backus and Mavity.
Lowry added the first 12 points of the third quarter to complete the 23-0 run and lead 37-24. The Buckaroos led by as many as 27 points at 50-23 after back-to-back 3-pointers by Snow and Mavity.
Garner led a balanced scoring attack with 14 points, while Backus and Mavity each had eight points. Robert Rangel, Huitt, Gildone and Stoker had three points each and Hemp added two points.
“I still think there is work for us to get better,” Garner said. “I still feel we can go higher.”
With two weeks left in the regular season, Lowry is third in the northern 3A at 10-3 and has clinched a playoff spot. Elko leads the Northern 3A at 13-0 and Churchill County is second at 13-1. South Tahoe (9-5) is fourth and Truckee and Dayton (5-8) are tied for fifth. Fernley (6-9) is seventh.
The top six teams qualify for the Northern 3A Regional Championships in Fallon on Feb. 20-22. The top two teams earn first-round byes.
“I still think this is the beginning for us,” Stoker said. “We saw a sneak peak at the start of the season with what we are capable of doing. We hit a little lull and got complacent. But with these last couple games, I think we are back on the upward trend.
Lowry is back on the road this weekend to play Elko on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Spring Creek on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
The Buckaroos make its final regular season road trip of the year on Tuesday, Feb. 11, in Fallon at 7:30 p.m.
“The biggest thing I want to see out of these next games is to see us compete,” Peters said. “We didn’t compete the last time we played Elko and Fallon.”
