FERNLEY — Last week started out a high note for the Lowry High School boys basketball team, but the end saw the Buckaroos drop two games and drop in the Northern 3A East standings.
Lowry opened last week with a 56-45 win over Churchill County on Tuesday, Feb. 1, in Winnemucca. The game was made up after being postponed from Jan. 28.
The win leveled the season series after the Greenwave won the first game 50-40 at the beginning of January.
Lowry was on the road this past weekend in Lyon County and suffered a 36-28 loss to Dayton and a 54-42 defeat to Fernley on Saturday afternoon.
The Buckaroos are now 12-9 overall, 4-4 in the Northern 3A East and 9-4 in the Northern 3A.
Fernley 56,
Lowry 42
Lowry ran into a hot-shooting Fernley team that made four 3-pointers in the first half to build an early lead. The Vaqueros hit two 3-pointers on their first three shots to grab an 8-2 lead, with Lowry’s Ismael Magana scoring in between the buckets. Lowry got in the 3-point shooting act, as Jordan Bills made one from long distance, but Fernley countered with its third 3-pointer to lead 11-5 after eight minutes of play.
The Vaqueros’ fourth 3-pointer extended the advantage to 14-7, when Bills scored the next five points for Lowry, including his second 3-pointer to cut the gap to 14-12.
Despite a technical foul midway through the second quarter, Fernley ended the first half on a 10-2 run and the Buckaroos’ Giovani Sapien had to go to the bench with four fouls after picking two up in matter of seconds near the end of the second quarter.
The teams traded buckets for much of the third quarter, when Magana made a shot to cut the gap to 38-32 late in the third quarter. Fernley opened a nine-point lead in the early going of the fourth quarter, when Bills connected on a 3-pointer to slice the gap to 41-25.
That was as close as Lowry got, as Fernley made its fifth 3-pointer of the day the next time down the floor and later extended the lead to 13 points at 50-37.
Dayton 36,
Lowry 28
When Lowry and Dayton played the last time in Winnemucca, the Buckaroos held for a one-point, 34-33 win. The second match-up was just as low-scoring, as Lowry had trouble with Dayton’s 2-3 zone defense.
Magana netted Lowry’s first six points of the night, but Dayton pulled away and led 11-8 after eight minutes after hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The Dust Devils led 14-10 in the second quarter when Iysis Arriola, Cal Peters, Marcos Rodriguez and Matthew Casalez made shots to tie the game at 18 at halftime.
The Dust Devils netted the first to points of the third quarter to go in front, as the Buckaroos went scoreless for nearly seven minutes.
Sapien ended the run with two free throws with 1:10 left in the quarter and Zach Fernandez added four free throws after a Dayton technical foul. Lowry did not have a field goal in the third quarter.
Dayton increased the lead to 31-24 when Peters made Lowry’s lone field goal of the second half with 3:21 left to play. The only other points for Lowry in the fourth quarter were two free throws by Fernandez.
Lowry 65,
Churchill County 45
It was a game of swings in Winnemucca, as Lowry took on Churchill County. The Buckaroos raced to a 20-12 lead in the first quarter, but managed just 14 points in the next two quarters.
The Greenwave used a 19-8 run in the third quarter to go in front 38-34, but that did not last long as the Buckaroos answered with a 22-7 run in the final eight minutes to come away with the win.
Peters paced Lowry with 20 points and Fernandez and Magana joined him in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Arriola netted seven points and Sapien six.
Elko has clinched the No. 1 seed form the Northern 3A East for the Northern 3A Regional Championships in Winnemucca from Feb. 17-19.
Fernley is second at 6-3 with one game left against Dayton. Churchill County and Lowry are tied for third and fourth at 4-4 with league games left against Spring Creek and Elko.
Lowry hosts South Tahoe on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and Spring Creek on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Buckaroos travel to Elko on Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. tip.
