It was a year of transitioning and learning, as the Battle Mountain High School boys basketball team put a young squad on the floor this year.
That young group collected a win over Incline in the regular season and played tough with West Wendover all season.
The Longhorns (18-11) traveled to West Wendover last week for the Northern 2A Regional Tournament. Battle Mountain opened with a 73-63 win over North Tahoe on Friday, but lost 63-48 to eventual champion West Wendover on Friday.
Battle Mountain 73, North Tahoe 63
North Tahoe led much of the first quarter and the Longhorns’ Lewis Strong found himself in early foul trouble with two of them in the first six minutes of the game.
A bucket by freshman Adan Navarez at the end of the quarter gave Battle Mountain a 171-6 lead.
The two squads traded buckets to start the second quarter, when Battle Mountain went on a 7-0 run off a 3-pointer by Blake Stuart and baskets from Brodie Smith and Stuart.
North Tahoe answered back with six straight points to trim the deficit to 29-28, when Geovanni Ruvalcaba and Stuart ended the first half with 3-pointers.
North Tahoe rallied for a 49-44 lead in the third quarter with 1:16 left, until Ruvalcaba and Smith made 3-pointers to tie the game at 50.
The Lakers eventually led 52-50 going into the fourth quarter.
Ruvalcaba began the final eight minutes of play with a 3-pointer, only to see North Tahoe come back to lead 58-57.
Trailing 63-62 with two minutes to play, Battle Mountain got 3-pointers from Ruvalcaba and Stuart to go in front 68-63 and held the lead the rest of the way.
Ruvalcaba and Stuart each had 21 points, Smith scored 19. Nevarez nine and Hall three.
West Wendover 63, Battle Mountain 48
Battle Mountain looked poised for the upset with a 14-12 run to start the game. West Wendover regrouped and held the Longhorns to seven points in the second quarter and led 28-21 at the break.
Battle Mountain closed the gap to three points at the start of the fourth quarter, when West Wendover finished the game on a 21-9 run.
Ruvalcaba and Smith led the Longhorns with 17 and 12 points, respectively. Nevarez and Stuart each scored seven points, Hall three and Chase Baum two.