FALLON — The Lowry High School boys basketball found itself in an early hole in its Northern 3A East opener in Fallon on Friday night.
Trailing by as many as 11 points in the first half to Churchill County, the Buckaroos rallied to tie the contest in the third quarter.
However, the Greenwave pulled away in the final eight minutes to secure a 50-40 win. Lowry dropped to 7-6 on the season and 0-1 in the Northern 3A East.
“You just can’t start out down 11-2 in the first quarter and win games against a team like that,” said LHS coach Chad Peters. “We settled down and made a nice run to tie the game. “We used so much energy to get back in the game and tie it, we ran out of gas in the fourth quarter.”
Churchill County opened the night with a 3-pointer and jumped out to an 11-2 lead in the first quarter.
After the slow start, the Buckaroos were able to trim the deficit to 13-8 after eight minutes of play after back-to-back buckets by Iysis Arriola and Lance Brinegar.
The Greenwave countered with an 8-2 run in the second quarter, with the only basket in the first four minutes of the period coming from Ismael Magana.
Jordan Bills had the only other field goal for the Buckaroos in the second quarter, as the Greenwave led 25-14 at halftime.
After scoring just six points in the second quarter, Lowry just about equaled that total in the opening minute of third quarter, as Cal Peters put back a shot and Zach Fernandez knocked down a 3-pointer to close the gap to 25-19.
Trailing 27-19, the Buckaroos picked up two baskets by Magana and one each from Giovani Sapien and Peters to tie the game at 27 with 3:10 left in the third quarter.
Lowry trailed 34-33 entering the fourth quarter, only to see Churchill County begin the period with a 13-2 run, with the lone Buckaroo basket coming from Rodriguez.
A 3-pointer by Brinegar with 1:47 to play cut the Greenwave lead to 47-40, but those were the last Buckaroo points.
“We made a nice little run but panicked too early,” Peters said “That let them get on that little run. We just need to take better shots and take care of the ball in that situation. We just need to get a little better offensively.”
Peters paced Lowry with 10 points, Rodriguez added eight, Magana six, Arriola and Brinegar five each and Kaid Sanchez, Sapien and Bills had two points apiece.
Lowry returns home this weekend to play Dayton on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Fernley at 2:30 p.m.
