The Battle Mountain High School girls basketball team saw a double-digit lead get away on Saturday afternoon, as Yerington rallied to beat the Lady Longhorns 47-44.
The win by the Lions moved them into a three-way tie for first place in the Northern 2A with Incline and White Pine. The Lady Longhorns are fourth in the league at 5-3 and Pershing County is fifth at 4-4.
“That one hurt,” said BMHS coach Paul Tremayne. “That loss is going to make it tough on us to get back to that No. 2 or No. 3 seed. The way it looks now, it might be us and Lovelock in the No. 4/5 game in the regional tournament in Lovelock.”
After Yerington scored the first four points of the day, the first quarter saw ties on three different occasions. Kaybrie Nield scored four of Battle Mountain’s first six points and a pair of free throws by sophomore Jade Castellanos gave the Lady Longhorns its first lead at 9-7.
Battle Mountain held an 11-9 lead after eight minutes of play, after a Yerington made a basket at the buzzer, though it appeared to come after the horn, it was still counted.
Nield added five more points for Battle Mountain and the Lady Longhorns’ defense stepped up to hold Yerington to just four points in the second quarter. Zarina Ceja and Brooke Ripley had baskets at the end of the first half to give Battle Mountain a 22-13 lead at halftime.
Nield’s basket at the start of the third quarter, gave Battle Mountain its largest lead of the day at 24-13, only to see Yerington reel off the next eight points to close the gap to 24-21 with 4:17 left in the third quarter.
A jump shot by Ripley stopped the run to push the advantage back to 26-21, but Yerington knocked down a 3-pointer to go in front 29-27. The Lions led 31-29 after three quarters after another buzzer beater.
Yerington added the first four points of the fourth quarter and eventually led 40-31 with 5:14 to play after making another 3-point shot. Ripley stopped the Lions’ momentum with a 3-pointer of her own with five minutes to play to cut the deficit to 40-34.
Trailing by seven points with 3:31 to play, Brynlee Freeman knocked down a short shot and Castellanos made two free throws to close within three points at 42-39.
Ripley tied the game at 42 with 1:30 to play, but Yerington answered the next time down the floor to back up by two points. Ripley countered again to tie the game at 44 with 65 seconds to play, when Yerington took the lead for good at 46-44.
The Lions missed two field goals with 6.3 seconds to play, but got the rebound off the miss and made a free throw to clinch the win with 3.1 seconds to go.
Ripley paced Battle Mountain with 13 points, Nield added 12, Castellanos seven, Ceja five, Freeman three, and Isabel Diaz and Christina Holley two each.
BMHS routs Coral Academy
Battle Mountain opened the weekend with a 56-14 win against Coral Academy from Reno.
Battle Mountain doubled up Coral Academy 12-6 in the opening eight minutes of play and extended the lead to 28-10 after a 16-4 spurt in the second quarter. Eight different players scored in the first half, with Ceja scoring seven points.
Battle Mountain came out of halftime and outscored Coral Academy 16-3 in the third quarter and allowed one point on defense in the fourth quarter.
Ceja had 10 points and three rebounds, while Castellanos added 10 points as well to go with nine rebounds. Addi Slaybaugh finished with eight points and nine rebounds.
Kira Smith, Holley and Nield each had six points, Ripley five, Freeman four and Diaz one.
“The girls started fast and had a good game,” Tremayne said. “We just have to keep improving every game.”
Battle Mountain begins a five-game road trip this weekend in Lake Tahoe. The Lady Longhorns are in Incline on Friday for a 6 p.m. start and North Tahoe on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip.
Battle Mountain steps out of league play on Tuesday to play Wells at 5:30 p.m. The Lady Longhorns are back on the road to face Pershing County on Friday, Jan. 31, and Silver Stage on Saturday, Feb. 1.
Battle Mountain closes out its home schedule on Feb. 7 against West Wendover and Saturday, Feb. 8, versus White Pine.
