By Justin Albright & Brandon Eastman Posted December 14, 2011
Fresh off a second straight berth in the 3A state championship game, the Lowry boy’s varsity team looks to accomplish their goals and win state.
The Bucks return five players from last year’s state championship team in Brandon Eastman, Jordan Rinas, Dion Wardell, Brian Noble, and Jesse Studebaker. Rounding out this year’s team are three sophomores in Tytus Millikan, Josh Watterson, and Calvin Connors. Freshman Garrett Naveran, senior Marc Bastien St-Onge, and senior Kade Mader are the new faces to the Lowry program this year.
Lowry is coming off a 17-8 season last year as they were very successful. The Bucks destroyed their league last year, going 10-0. The Bucks have to find a way to replace core players from last year’s team in Will Thacker, Sean Millikan, Anders Pace, Grant Miller, and Sterling Snow.
Without a doubt, the expectations are very high for the Bucks this year as they have a very young and talented team.
Over the past weekend, the Lowry boys varsity basketball team traveled to Mesquite to take part in the Virgin Valley Bulldogs Classic.
The Bucks got things started on Friday afternoon with a rematch of last year’s state championship game, against the Moapa Valley Pirates. After a sluggish first half, the Bucks rallied from an 8-point deficit at halftime to come back and take the victory by a final score of 63-54.
The Bucks then played two games on Saturday, beginning with the semifinal game against Basic High School. The Bucks would hang tough with the eventual champions, but eventually fell 79-71.
The loss sent the Bucks to the third-place game, where they faced off against Desert Oasis High School. Lowry started off strong in the first half, taking a 36-20 lead into the locker room. The second half saw a completely different Lowry team. After taking a 21-point lead shortly into the third quarter, the Diamondbacks began their comeback. The Bucks’ lead was cut to 45-42 heading into the fourth, and Desert Oasis hung tough with the Bucks and hit a 3-point shot at the buzzer to send the Bucks home with a fifth-place finish.
Junior Jesse Studebaker was named to the All-Tournament team.
The Bucks are next in action at home on Tuesday, December 13 at 6:30 p.m.
