Bucks get past Greenwave, fall to Vaqueros in Northern 3A semifinals
RENO — The Lowry High School boys basketball team avenged a pair of regular season losses to Churchill County in the opening round of the Northern 3A Regional Championships, beating the Greenwave 64-57 on Thursday night at North Valleys High School in Reno.
The victory kept the state tournament hopes alive for Lowry, who had to face Northern 3A East regular season champion Fernley on Friday, with the winner moving on to the final week of the season.
The Vaqueros got off to a red-hot start, leading 25-9 after the first quarter and eventually beating the Buckaroos 67-53. Lowry saw its season end at 11-14.
Lowry 64,
Churchill County 57
Lowry got off to a quick start and never looked back, as senior Anthony Guzman scored nine points in the opening quarter and Jordan Bills and Lance Brinegar added 3-point field goals to give Lowry a early lead.
The Buckaroos pushed the advantage to 26-14 at halftime off of buckets by Jaden Jimenez, Kayson Garner, Isaac Danner, Brinegar and Guzman.
Lowry spent most of the second half at the free throw line, with 25 attempts from the charity stripe.
The Buckaroos were 7-for-7 from the line in the third, including four from Jimenez and another by Danner on an old-fashioned 3-point play.
The Buckaroos made just three field goals in the final eight minutes, but Jimenez was 6-for-12 from the free throw line and Brinegar was 4-of-6 from the stripe to keep the Greenwave at bay.
Jimenez and Brinegar each scored 16 points in the win and Guzman and Danner joined them in double figures with 13 and 11, respectively. Bills scored three points and Dempsey Jenkins and Garner two each.
Fernley 67, Lowry 53
Fernley came out on fire on Friday night, scoring 10 of the first 12 points of the contest, when Jimenez stopped the run wit a 3-pointer. The Vaqueros came back with the next nine points to lead 19-5, when Jimenez stopped the spurt again with a putback bucket. Fernley had four 3-pointers in the opening eight minutes of play.
The Vaqueros took a 20-point lead at 29-9 early in the second quarter, when the Buckaroos picked up a short bucket by Guzman and a 3-pointer from Brinegar to cut the lead to 32-14. Brinegar knocked down a second 3-pointer to trim the deficit to 34-19 and forcing Fernley to take a timeout with 4:08 left in the half.
The stop in play allowed Fernley to regroup and it responded with a 12-4 to end the second quarter and lead 46-23 at halftime. Back-to-back baskets by Danner and Jenkins cut the Fernley lead to 50-31 midway through the third quarter but the Vaqueros finished the quarter on a 11-2 run to lead 61-33.
Lowry scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter off of baskets by Jenkins, Guzman and Danner. That started a 20-6 run in the final eight minutes for the Buckaroos. Lowry scored the final seven points of the game but not enough for the comeback.
Jenkins finished with a team-high 14 points, Jimenez added 11, Danner and Guzman eight each, Brinegar seven and Matthew Casalez and Garner two each.
He Buckaroos graduate five seniors.