The McDermitt High School girls basketball team made its way to Nixon on Tuesday, Dec. 20, to face Pyramid Lake, the reigning 1A state champion.
In a battle of two of the top teams in the Northern 1A, the Lakers opened up an eight-point lead in the first quarter to win 39-29.
Both teams found it tough going at the start, with the offense’s having trouble to score.
The first points of the contest came nearly halfway through the opening quarter on a steal and layup by Pyramid Lake.
The Lakers increased the advantage to 10-2, when Reign Crutcher knocked down a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the quarter to trail 10-5.
Pyramid Lake quickly scored the first seven points to increase the lead to 17-5, with Laeloni Tobey ending the run with basket.
As it was the case in the first quarter, McDermitt knocked down a 3-pointer near the end of the first half — this time by Vina Tom to trail 20-10 at halftime.
The Lady Bulldogs used a 6-2 run in the third quarter, led by a bucket from Kiarra Crutcher and a 3-pointer by Tom to close the gap to 23-18.
Trailing 33-24 midway through the fourth quarter, McDermitt made one last run with a 3-pointer by Tom and a putback shot by Alexis Scott to make the score 33-29.
That was as close as McDermitt got, with Pyramid Lake scoring the final six points of the night.
Tom paced the Lady Bulldogs with eight points, Reign Crutcher added seven, Tobey six, Scott four and Riata Palmer and Kiarra Crutcher two each.
McDermitt travels to Reno from Dec. 27-30 for the Christmas Classic at North Valleys High School and Damonte Ranch High School. The Lady Bulldogs played Reed JV on Dec. 27.
You can get up to date brackets and scores at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pa246rocGjM6thd_FwE-rUSHKzU8lrOBhvxh67SZkUo/edit#gid=0