The Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team collected two wins in three contests last week, including a split of its Northern 2A games on the road.
The week began with a road trip to Wells for a non-conference match-up with the Leopards, in which the Longhorns won 65-52.
Battle Mountain raced out to a 24-11 advantage in the first quarter and built a 40-23 lead at halftime.
The Longhorns saw its double-digit lead go away in the fourth quarter, before pulling away late in the game for the 13-point win.
DJ Martinez and Aldo Castellanos paced the Longhorns with 23 and 22 points, respectively.
Martinez added nine rebounds and was 13-of-17 from the free throw line and Castellanos had five boards.
Austin Behrman netted eight points, Brock Bullock five, Kobe Lake four and Junior Vasquez three points.
“We got off to a great start,” said BMHS coach Toby Melver. “We let Wells hang around and they got it to within six points in the fourth quarter. We shot 24 free throws in the fourth quarter and made 17 to push the lead back out and hold them off. We were missing some players due to various reasons but were able to pull together and get a road win against a scrappy Wells team that for the first time this season had all of their players healthy and playing.”
Longhorns fall to Wolverines
Battle Mountain made the trip to the Nevada/Utah border on Friday night and ran into a hot-shooting West Wendover squad. The Wolverines opened the contest with four 3-pointers and knocked down nine from long distance in the first half on their way to a 69-47 win.
West Wendover doubled up Battle Mountain 24-12 in the first eight minutes of play and held that same 12-point lead at halftime (42-30).
“West Wendover came right out and hit four straight 3-pointers to go up by 12 points,” added the coach. “We made some adjustments from our original game plan and kept the deficit to only 12 at halftime.”
The Longhorns made some adjustments at halftime and took the lead at the end of the third quarter on a 3-pointer by Martinez to cap off a 19-6 Battle Mountain run. The spurt was led by great man-to-man defense, according to Melver.
The contest was back-and-forth to start the fourth quarter, when West Wendover hit a pair of 3-pointers to push the advantage back to double-figures.
Martinez had a game-high 24 points to go with 11 rebounds and two steals. Castellanos (15) and Bullock (12) joined him in double figures. Castellanos grabbed five rebounds and had two steals and Bullock had six rebounds.
Alan Martinez, Behrman and Lake each had two points.
“It was a hard fought close game between two pretty evenly matched and similar style teams,” Melver said. “A huge game offensively and defensively for Brock — his best game of the year. He keeps improving every game. DJ and Aldo kept their consistent outstanding efforts going.”
BMHS rallies to beat White Pine
Battle Mountain closed out the road trip in Ely on Saturday and beat White Pine 53-38 to improve to 4-2 in the Northern 2A and 11-5 overall.
The Bobcats led 19-15 after eight minutes of play, but the Longhorn defense stepped up from there, holding White Pine to single digits in the last three quarters.
Battle Mountain led 28-27 at halftime and outscored White Pine 17-6 in the third quarter to secure the win.
DJ Martinez had a game-high 32 points and Behrman added 10. Castellanos netted six points, Alan Martinez and Lake two each and Bullock had one point.
“We came out a little slow and White Pine hit some big shots early,” Melver said. “But, we held in there and took a lead into halftime. I challenged the boys to leave it all out there in the second half and boy did they ever. They held White Pine to just 11 points in the second half. We had great defense and great rebounding. We took a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter and then slowed it down, making White Pine have to play one-on-one defense against our quick guards. We were able to run a lot of clock and hit our free throws to finish the game strong. It was a great team win, especially after the hard-fought game on Friday night in Wendover. To turn around and do it again just shows how hard this team is willing to play. Kobe keeps improving in his game and he played some really great interior defense.”
Battle Mountain hosts Coral Academy on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Yerington on Saturday 3:30 p.m.
