Pershing County's Khloe Montes goes up for a shot against Lincoln County,
The Pershing County High School girls basketball team finished the year with 22 wins and the Northern 2A championship but victory eluded them last Friday in the semifinal round of the state tournament at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas.
The Mustangs lost 48-47 to Lincoln County, as it meant the end of the road for Pershing County until next year.
The Panaca girls went on to face Needles, Calif., in the championship game at Cox Pavilion which Needles won 48-25.
Pershing County coach Lee Houston chalked his team’s loss up to foul trouble and missed free throws.
“It was especially hard because victory slipped right through our fingers,” he said.
The Mustangs and Lynx resemble each other in many ways, down to their school colors of red and black for the Mustangs and red and white for the Lynx.
“We knew going into this game we were playing a mirror image of ourselves. Lincoln County plays like us, they are built like us and we even wear the same colors,” he added.
Both teams hail from small Nevada towns and play an aggressive defense. It had to be a scrappy game.
The Mustangs got off to a good start, ending the first quarter ahead 11-1 and led by as many as 12 points (15-3) early in the second quarter.
Pershing County held a 24-13 advantage going into halftime despite foul trouble starting to add up.
That’s when the tide turned.
“In the third quarter the momentum started to swing to Lincoln County, and it was a fight to the very end,” Houston said.
The Lynx closed the gap to 28-27 with three minutes left in the fourth quarter but the Mustangs were still in front 35-29 going into the final eight minutes of action.
The Mustangs grew the gap to 39-31 with 5:15 to play, when the Lynx used a 14-5 run to take their first lead at 45-44 with 1:24 to go.
The score was tied at 46 with 10 seconds left on the clock, when Pershing County made 1-of-2 free throws to take a one-point lead.
“We just needed to make one stop to make the state title game. It wasn't meant to be. Lincoln County scored a bucket with three seconds to go to steal the win from us,” he said.
Lincoln County rebounded the ball off the missed free throw and drove down the court for the winning shot with 3 seconds to go.
Pershing County's Riley Harvey looks for room to dribble during a NIAA 2A State Semifinal game with Lincoln County on Friday at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas.
Pershing County was unable to get a good shot off after a timeout.
“In a game like this, you never know how the officials will call the game. In this game, there were 43 foul calls. Along with that, there were 59 total free throws attempted. That being said, we got into serious foul trouble which forced a different bench rotation than we wanted.”
Pershing County senior Aaliyah Allen played her last basketball game in a Mustang uniform.
“Aaliyah carried us down the stretch to win the northern championship last week. In this game, Lincoln was well aware of her and we could tell they were focused on trying to contain her. Words cannot express how much we will miss Aaliyah. She played her heart out for our program for four years,” Houston said.
Khloe Montes scored 13 points for the Mustangs, a season-high for the sophomore who also excelled on defense.
“Khloe did her thing driving their point guard crazy the whole game,” said Houston.
Pershing County's Arya Garland is introduced before the start of Friday's semifinal in Las Vegas.
Junior Riley Harvey also scored 13 points while Allen added nine. According to the coach, sophomore Arya Garland played one of her best games of the year, controlling the game from point guard position.
“As we look forward to next year, we expect to be back in the same position with a different outcome,” Houston said.
Now, most of the girls transition to softball or track. They'll host the Pershing County baseball and softball tournament this Thursday-Saturday. The first track meet is Friday, March 7 at Dayton High School.