Battle Mountain’s Chase Lutz splits two Yerington defenders on his way to the basket during the opening round of the Northern 2A Regional Championships in Lovelock.
LOVELOCK — The postseason often throws in some surprise come tournament time and unfortunately it was on the wrong side of the scoreboard for the Battle Mountain boys basketball team.
The Northern 2A Regional Championships opened on Thursday. Feb. 13, at Pershing County High School in Lovelock, with No. 6 seed Yerington upsetting Battle Mountain 78-67 in the quarterfinals.
The Longhorns finished the season at 17-8 overall.
The first eight minutes of the contest featured a frantic pace that resembled a 40-yard dash up and down the floor.
The largest lead of the opening quarter was by four points from Yerington at 6-2 and Battle Mountain at 18-14.
The advantage changed hands eight different times.
Five different Longhorns scored in the first quarter, with Abraham Nevarez scoring seven.
Battle Mountain’s Lewis Strong fights for control of the ball.
Freshman Geovanni Ruvalcaba opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer to push the Battle Mountain advantage to four once again at 21-17, when Yerington went on a 12-4 run to lead 33-25 with under two minutes to play in the half.
The Longhorns rallied to cut the deficit to three points at the break after two free throws from Adan Nevarez and buckets from Abraham Nevarez and Brodie Smith.
Battle Mountain quickly converted the first four baskets of the second half to have its largest lead at 40-35. Yerington went scoreless for nearly the first four minutes of the quarter.
After the slow start, following halftime, the Lions scored 17 points in the final four minutes of the third quarter to lead 52-49.
Battle Mountain closed the gap to 58-56 in the fourth quarter when Smith hit one his two 3-pointers in the quarter, but Yerington quickly went on another run to go in front 66-56 with five minutes to play. Smith’s second 3-pointer brought the Longhorns within 68-61 but could not get any closer from there.
Four players reached double figures for Battle Mountain, with Smith and Abraham Nevarez scoring 19 and 18 points, respectively. Ruvalcaba added 14 points, Adan Nevarez 11, Chase Lutz three and Lewis Strong two.