By Nakiya Flores & Weston Irons Posted December 17, 2014
The varsity boys’ basketball had their work cut out for them playing against four Division I teams as they participated in a tournament in Reno spanning from Wednesday to Saturday. The Bucks would be playing Reno, Hug, Reed, and McQueen, all schools that are much bigger than Lowry. Lowry proved to the competition that they belonged after going 2-2 over the three days and defeating the likes of Hug and McQueen.
Lowry began the tournament off by playing the Reno High Huskies, a team that the Bucks had played several times in the past. The Bucks had hoped to repeat what last year’s team did and defeat the Huskies. Unfortunately, the Bucks came up short and lost to the Huskies in a 58-45 contest. Juniors Omar Guerrero and Nathan Lutzow lead the Bucks with 11 and 9 points. Six other players got onto the score sheet for the sheet.
Despite the first day lost and not getting the result they wanted against Reno, Lowry came back to the tournament the following day with a fire in their eyes. Lowry would play against Hug, a team that has struggled in the past and a team that loses games with large deficits. Lowry showed Hug what they were made of by playing hard and smart basketball, giving Lowry a fairly easy win. It was a good adjustment from day one and the Bucks equaled up their record for the tournament.
It was on Friday that the Bucks would play against Reed, which was one of the better teams in the tournament. Lowry went into the game with the same determination they had brought into the Hug game but unfortunately, they could not defeat Reed as they went on to lose the game 59-52. Reed got came out and got an early 13-0 lead over the Bucks, and despite a much better second half, the Buckaroos could not overcome their slow start.
Center Nathan Lutzow had his own opinion on the two losses over the tournament.
“We did pretty good. Both Reno and Reed were beatable teams it just didn’t go our way and we could have done a lot of things better,” said Lutzow.
Senior guard Jacob Von Aspern pinpointed some of the things that went wrong in the two losses.
“All the games went well but there were some games that we should’ve won but weren’t able to make free throws in the end. We could improve our offense and shooting free throws,” said Von Aspern.
On the final day of the tournament, Lowry played against McQueen. The Bucks went home on a strong note defeating McQueen early that Saturday Morning.
Junior Omar Guerrero summarized the tournament.
“So we went 2-2,” finished Guerrero. “We beat the teams we’re likely to beat and the games that were up for grabs, we would shoot ourselves in the foot. We need to come out hard in the first quarter so we don’t bury ourselves and spend the rest of the game trying to get out of that hole. We play with a sense of urgency when we have but we need to be that way throughout the game. We didn’t have all our players but with the guys we did have, we worked hard and found the things we needed to get taken care of. It was our last tournament before the season and now it’s time to get real and play up to Lowry level.”
The Bucks will begin league play with games against South Tahoe and Dayton at home on Friday and Saturday this week. Games begin right after school beginning with the Freshmen boys game at 2 p.m.
