Spanish Springs, playing without three starters, who did not make the trip to southern Nevada after violating team rules, handed northern Nevada rival Galena a 33-25 loss in pool play.
The Cougars, who dropped their first two tournament games Saturday, bounced back, with a stellar defensive outing. Spanish Springs, with its full roster, dropped a non-league game at Galena three weeks ago, 48-43. In that previous meeting Galena's Hayley Jensen and Emily Burns, the Grizzlies' two leading scorers, put up 18 and 13 points respectively. In Monday's tournament tilt, the Spanish Springs defense limited them to four points each.
Galena was held to just of 10-of-33 shooting from the field.
"It sure wasn't an offensive showcase, but ultimately it goes in the win column and we did what we needed to do. Defensively, we kept them from scoring a lot of points," Spanish Springs coach Christine Eckles said. "We know we don't have a lot of offensive firepower this weekend so we had to really work on defensive end."
The SSHS cagers got off to a strong start, jumping ahead 13-2 after one period. Galena turned the tables in the second period, outscoring Spanish Springs 13-4. That left Spanish Springs clinging to a 17-15 halftime edge.
Galena did not go away. The south Reno school rallied to tie the game at 22-22 late in the third period. That's as good as it got for the Grizz as Spanish Springs got a driving layup from Ari James to recapture the lead, 24-22, after three quarters.
James finished with a game-high 13 points and pulled down nine rebounds.
The Cougars never trailed in the contest. In fact, after Galena pulled into the 22-22 deadlock, Spanish Springs closed out the game with an 11-3 run.
Kallee James contributed 10 points and six rebounds to the Cougars' winning cause.
The win was just the second ever for the Cougars over the Grizzlies in 18 meetings since SSHS opened in the fall of 2001.
In Spanish Springs' second tournament game of the day, the Cougars downed Valley High of Las Vegas 45-35.
Spanish Springs ran out to a 32-11 lead by halftime. The local school led by 23, 40-17 after three periods. Valley outscored a lineup of mostly Spanish Springs reserves in the fourth quarter, 18-5.
Kelly Hernandez scored 19 points and pulled down eight rebounds in the winning effort. Caitlin McKinney had 10 points and six assists to help the Cougars' cause.
The Cougars (9-7) wound up splitting their four tournament pool games, losing both on Saturday before winning both of Monday's contests. Spanish Springs wraps up tournament play Tuesday against Pahrump Valley at 12:30 p.m.
"I thought we played two pretty good basketball teams, and being down three starters, it was nice to come back and see the kids keep their composure and work hard to get a couple victories," Eckles said. "Obviously, it is big to beat Galena who knows a lot about us and beat us earlier at full strength.
•The Reed girls basketball squad rebounded from a loss Saturday with a 61-55 win over Etiwanda Monday afternoon in the platinum division of the West Coast Jamboree.
The Raiders relinquished their lead in the fourth quarter only to battle back with strong defense. The Eagles were forced to foul in the final minute and Reed was clutch from the line.
"Our defense was actually creating a little more easy offense for us," Reed coach Sara Schopper said. "We were getting the other team to turn the ball over and scoring off of that. We're doing a good job holding them to one shot. To get a win down here is always big time."
Erica McKenzie paced Reed's offense with 21 points. Danielle Peacon added 15, while Hannah Knudsen had 12, including a couple late key buckets when Etiwanda focused on shutting down McKenzie and Peacon.
Over 200 schools are participating in the winter tournament, but the top 16 teams were invited to take part in the platinum division.
Reed (5-3) will try to reach Wednesday's consolation bracket championship game, but will need to beat Chico today at 2:30 p.m.
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