BMHS boys collect three wins
The Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team started 2023 on a high with three wins last week to improve to 6-4 overall and 2-0 in the Northern 2A.
After a long layoff, the Longhorns returned to the floor on Monday, Jan. 3, with a road trip to Wells and they beat the Leopards 69-38 in the non-conference meeting.
Battle Mountain started Northern 2A action with its home debut against Silver Stage and came away with a 60-7 win.
The Longhorns raced out to a 32-3 lead in the first quarter, beginning with an old-fashioned 3-point play from Blake Stuart. The defensive pressure from the Longhorns proved to be too much in the opening eight minutes, with a number of easy baskets.
Senior Dennis Wahl had a stretch of four straight baskets in the first quarter to give Battle Mountain a 15-3 lead. The Longhorns scored the final 17 points of the opening period, including a 3-pointer from Zayne Hall and two buckets by Jr Vazquez.
The Longhorns held the Nighthawks scoreless in the second quarter and created a running clock midway through the second quarter with the score 40-3 after a basket by Braden Wahrenburg.
Battle Mountain outscored Silver Stage 17-4 in a quick second half with the running clock.
It was a much different story on Saturday afternoon, as Battle Mountain hosted Yerington. In a back-and-forth contest throughout, the Longhorns held on for a 57-50 win.
The day belonged to Stuart, as the Battle Mountain junior knocked down eight 3-point field goals in the game. Stuart made half of those 3-pointers in the first quarter, as he scored 12 of the Longhorns’ 16 points.
Vazquez had the other four points, as the game was tied at 16 after eight minutes of play.
Stuart hit his fifth 3-pointer of the day early in the second quarter to give Battle Mountain a 23-18 lead. Yerington closed the gap to 24-234 at one time, but Vazquez scored Battle Mountain’s final four points of the half to give the Longhorns a 28-24 lead at halftime.
After Yerington opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer, the hot-shooting hand of Stuart came back with a 3-pointer to push the advantage back to four points.
Despite a pair of baskets from Vazquez, Yerington rallied to take a 36-35 lead late in the third quarter, when Stuart answered back with two more 3-pointers to give Battle Mountain a 41-36 lead.
The advantage stood at 44-40 entering the final eight minutes of play.
Yerington opened the fourth quarter on a 10-4 run to go in front 50-48 but did not score again in the final 5:06 of the game. With 4:32 left to play.
Wahrenburg converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to give Battle Mountain the lead for good at 51-50.
Boden Machado and Wahrenburg converted baskets late in the game to secure the victory.
Battle Mountain travels to Incline on Friday for a 7:30 p.m. tip and will be in Tahoe City, Calif., on Saturday to play North Tahoe at 3:30 p.m.
The Longhorns host West Wendover on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m.