For the first time in nearly two years, the Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team was back on its home floor to open Northern 2A play against West Wendover.
The Longhorns gave the Wolverines a scare in the third quarter, but West Wendover pulled away in the final 12 minutes to beat Battle Mountain 80-45.
West Wendover scored 10 of the first 12 points of the night, with a Dennis Wahl layup in between to break up the spurt by the Wolverines.
The only other field goal from the Longhorns in the opening eight minutes of play was by Aydan Samuelson. West Wendover led by nine points, 16-7 after the first quarter.
Buckets by Samuelson and Boden Machado kept Battle Mountain within 10 points early in the second quarter, but West Wendover used a 9-0 run to lead 32-13 and maintained the double-digit advantage into halftime at 37-17.
Evan Gonzalez provided the Longhorns and early spark at the start of the third quarter with a 3-pointer, only to see the Wolverines stretch the lead back out to 22 points at 44-22.
As the game got more physical in the third quarter, Battle Mountain slowly cut into gap. Terrance Fetterly and Machado had a stretch of 11 points to get within 13 points at 46-33.
That was as close as Battle Mountain got, as West Wendover regrouped and closed out the third quarter on a 15-6 run to lead 61-39.
Battle Mountain notched the first basket of the third quarter on a putback shot by Machado but West Wendover answered with a 17-2 run to go up 78-43 with 3:13 left and created a running clock.
Machado paced the Longhorns with 12 points, Fetterly added nine, Evan Gonzalez five and Wahl and Samuelson each had four. Sage Holt, Jr. Vazquez and Sean Bengoa had two points apiece.
Battle Mountain’s scheduled game against Eureka on Friday was postponed due to weather.
The Longhorns travel to Wells on Tuesday, Jan. 4.
Battle Mountain is back in league play on Friday, Jan. 7, at home against North Tahoe at 7:30 p.m. Battle Mountain hosts Incline on Saturday, Jan. 8, at 3:30 p.m.
