Playing with just five girls for much of the season, the McDermitt High School girls basketball team made its way into the Northern 1A East Regional Tournament.
The Lady Bulldogs earned the No. 4 seed for the tournament and hosted Carlin, the No. 5 seed on Tuesday, Feb. 15.
The two teams split their regular season meetings but it was not close as the teams battled for a spot in the regional semifinals. McDermitt controlled much of the contest in a 54-22 win.
McDermitt got off to a slow start, making just one field goal in the opening eight minutes of play, that being a layup and steal by Taylor Killsback. Vina Tom and Cayla Crutcher each added a free throw, as McDermitt trailed 7-4.
It was all Lady Bulldogs from there, as the squad with three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior went on a 21-3 run in the second quarter.
Riata Palmer, one of the three freshmen on the team, opened the second quarter with a jump shot and Crutcher, a junior, added a layup and 3-pointer to give McDermitt a 14-10 lead.
Vina Tom, another freshman, then added six straight points, two off of free throws and another four off of steals that resulted in easy layups to push the advantage to 20-10 with 1:38 left in the second quarter.
Crutcher helped close out a 14-0 run and give McDermitt a 25-10 halftime lead after a putback basket and 3-pointer.
Carlin made a small run to cut the gap to 27-5 in the third quarter, but McDermitt ended the quarter on a 15-1 run. Tom, Killsback and Crutcher combined for all 15 of those points.
Tom led all scorers with 19 points, Crutcher had 14, Palmer 13, Killsback six Laeloni Tobey two.
Wells 69,
McDermitt 37
McDermitt traveled to Elko High School for the Northern 1A East regional semifinals with a spot on the state tournament up for grabs.
McDermitt stayed close with the top seed in the tournament in the first quarter trailing 17-10. The Leopards pulled away in the middle two quarters with a 24-11 run in the second quarter and a 19-5 spurt in the third quarter to make the score 60-26.
The all-underclassmen Lady Bulldogs went 6-12 on the season and 2-6 in league play.
Eureka upset Wells in the regional title game and will be a No. 1 seed in the state tournament. The 1A State Championships is eight teams this year and will be played in Las Vegas.
Eureka plays Pyramid Lake and Pahranagat Valley takes on Beaver Dam in the top portion of the bracket. GV Christian plays Round Mountain and Coleville plays Wells in the bottom portion of the bracket on Thursday at the Cox Pavilion.
The semifinals will be played Friday at Chaparral High School. The championship game is Saturday at the Cox Pavilion at 1:40 p.m.
