Lowry boys pick up crucial wins over South Tahoe and Dayton

The Lowry High School boys basketball team picked up two much-needed wins last week as the regular season concludes this week.

Lowry traveled to South Tahoe on Tuesday, Jan. 31, and knocked off the Northern 3A West leader 46-34. 

The Buckaroos were back home this past weekend to celebrate Winterfest and routed Dayton 65-35 on Friday night. 

The Buckaroos lost 59-56 to Northern 3A East leader Fernley on Saturday afternoon.

Lowry is now 9-12 overall, 2-6 in the Northern 3A East and 6-0 against the Northern 3A West.

Lowry 46, 

South Tahoe 34

Both offenses struggled for much of the game, when Lowry found its groove midway through the third quarter. The Vikings led 21-18 at halftime, but the Buckaroos got going late in the third quarter with a 12-3 run to lead 30-24. Lowry continued to pull away in the final eight minutes to secure the win.

Lowry 65, 

Dayton 35

There was not going to be any upset on Friday, as Lowry came out on fire in the first quarter, as Jordan Bills and Lance Brinegar each knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, as Lowry jumped out to  a 23-2 lead. Isaac Danner also had seven points in the first eight minutes of play.

The Buckaroos led 34-12 at halftime and continued its hot shooting after the break, as Matthew Casalez and Brinegar each made a pair of 3-pointers.

The Lowry lead ballooned to 55-26 after three quarters of play.

Casalez paced Lowry with 16 points and Brinegar and Danner joined him in double figured with 14 and 13 points, respectively. 

Dempsey Jenkins and Bills each had eight points, Kayson Garner four and Jack DeLong two.

Fernley 59, 

Lowry 56

A 3-pointer by Brinegar gave Lowry the early lead against the league-leader, but the Vaqueros used an 9-2 run late in the opening eight minutes of play to go in front 18-12.

Fernley used an 19-9 run in the second quarter to lead 37-21 at halftime and maintained that double-figure lead to the start of the fourth quarter.

Baskets by Jenkins and Brinegar cut the deficit to 49-40 with 4:57 to play, when Fernley converted a pair of buckets to push the lead back to 51-40. 

With four minutes to play, Bills knocked down a 3-pointer and after free throws by Fernley, Brinegar converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to make the score 55-46.

The Lowry rally continued with a putback shot by Danner and a layup by Anthony Guzman off a steal. The Buckaroos extended the 9-0 with two free throws by Brinegar and trailed 55-52 with 1:19 to play.

Fernley stopped the run with a basket to push the lead back to 57-52, when Danner had an answer for Lowry. After the Vaqueros could not convert on offense, Brinegar closed the gap to 57-56 with 23 seconds to go with two free throws.

Lowry was forced to foul Fernley multiple times in the final seconds and when the Vaqueros got into the bonus, they made  two free throws with 12.6 seconds to play to lead 59-56. The Buckaroos had a chance to tie but could not convert as time expired.

Brinegar had a team-high 20 points and Guzman and Danner added eight apiece. Jenkins had seven points, Bills five, Jaden Jimenez four and Justin Scott and Casalez two each.

Lowry traveled to Spring Creek on Tuesday and results were not available at press time. Lowry hosts Elko on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.