Coaches usually say freshmen are not freshmen when you get this late in the season. The Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team came into this year with a very young team of four freshen and two sophomores. There are just three seniors on the squad.
The Longhorns are peaking at the right time, which included a 62-59 win over Incline on Friday and an 85-67 victory over North Tahoe on senior day. It was also Winterfest week at Battle Mountain.
Battle Mountain 62, Incline 59
The Longhorns scored more than half their points against Incline on Friday night with 11 3-point field goals.
Battle Mountain had four players reach double figures in scoring, led by senior Blake Stuart with 13. He added three assists, two rebounds and two steals.
Geovanni Ruvalcaba added 11 points, three assists and two rebounds and Adan Nevarez and Zayne Hall each scored 10 points.
Nevarez, a freshman, grabbed seven rebounds to go with four assists and one steal. Hall had three rebounds, one assist and one steal.
Freshman Brodie Smith contributed eight points, five assists and three assists and senior Luis Guizar scored six points. Fellow senior Chase Baum scored six points.
Battle Mountain 85, North Tahoe 67
Saturday’s finale was more of a get to know you game than anything else. The two squads knew they would face each other in the opening round of the Northern 2A Regional Championship on Thursday in West Wendover.
North Tahoe won the first match-up of the regular season by 10 points, but Battle Mountain avenged the loss with an 18-point win on senior day.
The game was tied at 18 after the first quarter, when the Longhorns took the lead for good with a 22-9 run in the second quarter. The offense continued to click with 45 points in the second half.
A day after making 11 3-pointers, Battle Mountain knocked 18 from long distance to tie them for third most in state history by a team.
Stuart went out in style in his final home game with seven 3-pointers and 26 points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals.
Guizar scored all 15 of his points on 3-pointers, while Ruvalcaba and Smith scored 16 and 11 points, respectfully. Hall netted eight points to go with three rebounds, Joaquin Cunanan had three points and Eric Fernandez, Baum and Nevarez two each. Nevarez added seven rebounds, three assists and a steal.
Battle Mountain takes on North Tahoe on Thursday at 8 p.m. (West Wendover time).
The winner plays No. 1 seed West Wendover on Friday at 4:40 p.m. Yerington and Pershing County play Thursday at 4:40 p.m. with the winner taking on Incline of Friday at 8 p.m.
The championship is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday.