The Battle Mountain High School girls basketball team picked up two wins in three games last week to improve to 4-2 in the Northern 2A and 11-5 overall.
The Lady Longhorns stepped out of league play on Tuesday, Jan. 7, and beat Wells 48-36. Battle Mountain’s Kaybrie Nield and Brynlee Freeman combined for 10 of the Lady Longhorns’ 14 points to help build a 14-4 advantage.
The Leopards reeled off the first seven points of the second quarter to cut the deficit to 14-11 and forcing the Lady Longhorns to call a timeout. The stoppage helped Battle Mountain settle down and score the next seven points off of baskets by Brooke Ripley, Zarina Ceja and Addi Slaybaugh to lead 21-11. The back-and forth fight continued, as Wells closed the margin to 24-21, before trailing 27-21 at halftime.
The Lady Longhorns picked up four points from Nield and a 3-pointer by Ripley to push the advantage to 34-23.
However, the double-digit lead was not safe, as the Leopards fought back to close the gap to 36-35 with 2:50 to play. Battle Mountain regrouped and picked up a pair of baskets each by Nield and Slaybaugh to secure the 12-point win.
Nield had a team-high 15 points and rebounds, Kira Smith and Slaybaugh each had six points, Ripley five, Ceja and Freeman four each, Christina Holley and Isabel Diaz three each and Jade Castellanos two.
“It was a chance to see something different,” said BMHS coach Paul Tremayne. “We tried some different lineups on the floor and running some new stuff.”
BMHS routs West Wendover
Battle Mountain was back in league play on Friday night in West Wendover and routed the Wolverines 64-31.
Ceja had a team-high 20 points to go with six assists and five steals and Slaybuagh had 12 points, seven rebounds and five steals. Ripley contributed eight points.
“The girls came out and played probably our most complete game of the season,” added the coach. “We scored consistently throughout the entire game. We played well in our presses and on defense and we had nine girls score.”
Lady Longhorns fall to White Pine
The road trip concluded on Saturday afternoon in Ely with a 42-27 loss to White Pine, who is tied for second in the Northern 2A with Incline. Yerington leads the league at 6-0.
Battle Mountain trailed 20-18 at halftime, but managed just nine points in the second half.
Nield had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Longhorns and Cjea had eight points.
“We played a very good first half,” Tremayne said. “In the second half we could not make a basket and turned the ball over too many times. The girls had a good weekend. We just need to start putting four quarters together every night.”
Battle Mountain hosts Coral Academy on Friday at 6 p.m. and Yerington on Saturday at 2 p.m.
