Lady Longhorns win two of three to end regular season
The Battle Mountain High School girls basketball team had a busy end to the regular season with three games last weekend.
The Lady Longhorns were in Lovelock on Thursday and rallied from a 12-point deficit to beat Pershing County 39-37.
The Mustangs scored 11 of the first 13 points of the game, as Christina Holley made the only field goal for Battle Mountain in the first eight minutes of play.
Holley opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer and Jolena Ayers scored on a layup to quickly cut the deficit to 13-10, when Pershing County went on a 7-0 run to push the lead back to double figures.
The Mustangs went into halftime leading 25-13.
Pershing County led by as many as nine points midway through the third quarter, when Battle Mountain ended the quarter on an 8-3, which included a bucket by Lindsey Bleak and one by Holley at the buzzer to make the score 34-30.
Pershing County made the opening bucket of the fourth quarter but it would be its last. The Mustangs led 37-30 with five minutes to play and did not score the rest of the way. Aylea Ramos cut the gap to 37-32 but fouled out moments later with 4:27 to play.
Moments later, the advantage shrunk to 37-35 after Lilliana Haney knocked down a 3-pointer with 4:11 to go.
After nearly three minutes of no scoring, Battle Mountain trimmed the Pershing County lead to 37-36 with 1:13 to go. After getting a steal, Thalia Gonzalez was fouled with 52 seconds to play and she made 1-of-2 shots to tie the game at 37.
Pershing County then turned the ball over on a backcourt violation, which led to a free throw by Haney to give Battle Mountain the lead at 38-37 with 21 seconds to play.
The Mustangs failed to convert the next time down the floor and with 5.8 seconds left, Ayers made a free throw to seal the win.
BMHS 48, Coral Academy 33
Battle Mountain was in Reno the next day to play Coral Academy. The Lady Longhorns struggled at the start coming off the big win the night before and trailed 20-18 at halftime.
The defense stepped up from there, holding the Falcons to 12 points in the second half. Battle Mountain used a 14-5 run in the third quarter to build a 32-26 lead and closed the contest on a 16-7 run.
North Tahoe 51, BMHS 11
Battle Mountain closed out the regular season on Saturday at North Tahoe with a 51-11 loss. The game was being made up from an earlier cancelation.
Snow struck the area again on Saturday morning, causing the Longhorns a long trip up to the mountains of Tahoe City, Calif.
Battle Mountain finished the regular season at 8-6 in league play and 13-10 overall.
The Lady Longhorns will play Yerington in the opening round of the Northern 2A Regional Championships on Thursday at Incline High School at 5 p.m.
The winner of that game plays North Tahoe at 6:20 p.m. on Friday at Incline.
West Wendover and Coral Academy play in the other first round game on Thursday at 8 p.m. with the winner playing Pershing County on Friday at 3 p.m.
The championships is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday. The two finalists advance to the NIAA State Championships in Las Vegas on Feb. 24-25.