Hoops is officially back.
The first preseason basketball tournament of the 2021-22 year took place in Hawthorne this past weekend.
The Pershing County Mustangs went 2-3 against Yerington (62-17, loss), Hawthorne, Spring Mountain (48-43, win), Virginia City and Smith Valley (45-32, win).
The coach described each Mustangs’ contributions to the successful preseason tourney, beginning with the three seniors.
“Ashton Nolf continued his leadership and newcomer Diego Gonzalez made himself a presence on the court, scoring several baskets each game.
Esteban Vidrio was a defenseman all weekend,” he said.
Blake Burrows and Noel Zaldivar are juniors. According to Canchola, Burrows found his role in the last few games and helped immensely. He said Zaldivar proved trustworthy of a large amount of minutes off the bench.
The sophomores are Aaron Kienbaum and Marshall Happy. Kienbaum led the team in points. Happy will begin competing this weekend.
“Marshall has been putting in a lot of hard work in practice and in schoolwork,” said Canchola. “He’ll be huge for us to have this weekend.”
Travis Donaldson and Kaden Chambers are freshmen. They each added to the team’s success said the coach.
Rich Campbell assists Canchola. They’ve reached out to Lance Condie. Condie will visit periodically to offer advice based on his decades of coaching the Mustangs in both football and basketball.
“Every game of the tournament we gained more experience. We could see it. We’ve already matched the 2019-20 season,” said the coach.
This Thursday the boys travel to Zephyr Cove for the Whittell tournament. They’ll spar with Sparks, Whittell, Owyhee and Wells.
