By Calvin Connors Posted January 23, 2011
The defending 3A state champions were tested by the defending 2A state champions the Battle Mountain Longhorns.
In a match-up that consisted of two very well-coached teams, the Lady Bucks came out in the first quarter not looking as explosive on offense as they usually do. The Lady Bucks didn’t have their usual starting line up in this game and two bucks starters Julia Dufurrena and Madison Gonzales were not on the court when the ball was tipped off.
One player who made her first start on the varsity level in this game was Taylor Johnson-and what a debut it was for Johnson. Taylor came out making a pair of jump shots and giving the Lady Bucks a spark.
The score at the end of the first quarter was 12 to 15 and the Buckaroos were losing. In the second quarter, Julia Dufurrena started to bring the energy back into the game for the Lady Bucks with her hustle on both offense and defense. At the end of the first half, the bucks were up 30-25.
Throughout the second half, Lowry looked like they came out with a different mindset and shut down the Battle Mountain offense. The Bucks stepped it up on both offense and defense, holding the Longhorns to a total of 12 second-half points to end up beating Battle Mountain in a score of 59 to 37. Junior, Julia Dufurena stated that the team as a whole overlooked the game against Battle Mountain because of their previous game against Spring Creek.
“The coaches told us to step our game up, so we did,” said Taylor Johnson.
