The Cougars will get the HDL’s fourth and final playoff invitation if Bishop Manogue beats Fallon today. That conference clash will tip off at 5 p.m. at Manogue.
A loss Friday at McQueen would have eliminated Spanish Springs from playoff contention. The Cougars are hoping to earn the first playoff berth in the seven years of their program.
“It was a much-needed win, but like I told the kids before the game. I wanted to see a playoff-ready team tonight,” Spanish Springs coach Kyle Penney said. “I’m not sure I saw that at times today.”
Spanish Springs won the game in the second and third quarters where it outscored McQueen 44-25.
McQueen’s Mike LaGrone threw in a 65-foot prayer that fell through the twine at the conclusion of the first period. The long ball saw the Lancers trail by just two, 15-13, after the first eight minutes.
The Lancers defense wasn’t as good in the second quarter. Spanish Springs hung 26 points on their Northwest Reno hosts in the second eight minutes.
McQueen tied the game at 15 apiece after Chris Stocker drained two free throws seconds into the second period. The Lancers would never tie the game again. Spanish Springs scored the next seven points and led the rest of the way.
A layup by Kyle May kept McQueen close, down 37-30 with just over a minute remaining in the first half. However, Spanish Springs pushed its lead to 11 at the intermission, 41-30, when Tyler Emrick and Adam Miller both dropped in layups in the final minute of the second period.
Spanish Springs outscored McQueen 10-5 through the first five minutes of the third period for a 51-35 advantage.
“Quite honestly, we got the looks we wanted, especially early. We just didn’t connect,” McQueen coach Tobey Hilliard said. “We didn’t connect early and therefore we got behind. We didn’t play with the same energy after that.”
McQueen’s Greg Cooper followed a missed shot for a putback that made the score 53-38 with 1:56 left in the third quarter, but the game got ugly from there if you were a Lancers’ fan.
The Cougars reeled off nine straight points, capped by two Dan Lide free throws. That made the score 64-38, giving the guests their biggest lead of the night.
“I looked up and they hadn’t scored for a while. We executed offensively and we were patient,” Penney said. “We didn’t take a lot of jump shots in that stretch and we got defensive stops.”
McQueen cut the gap back down to 17, 64-47 with six minutes still left to play, but the run proved too little too late.
Spanish Springs stopped the spurt when Taelor Marchbanks dropped a 3-point bomb and made the ensuing free throw after being fouled for a rare 4-point play. That started a a 9-2 Cougars burst and nixed any faint comeback hopes the Lancers were still clinging to.
The Cougars’ 77 points ties a season high for offensive output. Spanish Springs also scored 77 in a preseason tournament win over West Wendover at Elko in early December. Three Cougars hit for double digits in the scoring column. SSHS senior forward Zach Beebe led all scorers with 25 points. Adam Miller and Marchbanks contributed 15 and 11 points respectively to the winning cause.
“Our spacing on offense was good. They played that zone the whole time and we did a good job of finding the openings and getting to the middle. Then we mixed in a couple threes,” Penney said.
Stocker and LaGrone paced the MHS offense with 17 and 16 points.
Girls
•The Spanish Springs Cougars concluded their regular season with a 66-45 victory at McQueen Friday night.
Jordan Rogers led a trio of Cougars in double figures in the High Desert League affair. Rogers poured in a game-high 26 points while also pulling down 5 rebounds, dishing out 5 assists, swiping 5 steals and blocking 3 shots.
Caitlin McKinney and Courtney Darby added 11 and 10 points respectively for Spanish Springs.
McQueen took an early 9-7 lead with just over two minutes to go in the first quarter but Spanish Springs scored the final six points of the period. That left the visiting Cougars with a 13-9 edge after one quarter and they never trailed again.
Spanish Springs pushed its lead to 25-12, but McQueen’s Channing Fleischmann banked in a 3-pointer just before time expired on the first half and the Lancers trailed by only 10 at halftime, 25-15.
The Cougars’ offense found a rhythm in the third period as the SSHS squad broke out for 23 points in the eight-minute span. The outburst helped Spanish Springs grab a 48-27 lead after three quarters.
McQueen still threw a scare into its guests. The Lancers opened the fourth quarter on a 17-6 run and narrowed the margin to 54-44.
That’s as good as it got for McQueen. Following a timeout, Spanish Springs got a Rogers layup thanks to a McKinney assist on a set play. The Cougars finished the game by outscoring the Lancers 12-1.
Spanish Springs sits 19-9 overall and wraps up its HDL slate at 8-4. Both marks are all-time bests in the seven years of the Cougars’ program.
Spanish Springs’ playoff seeding will be determined by today’s Galena-McQueen contest.
A Galena win leaves the Grizzlies and Cougars in a tie at second place in the HDL standings. However, under that scenario Galena gets the HDL’s second playoff seed based on a tiebreaker that rewards the team that won the second league meeting between the two schools.
Spanish Springs will go to Douglas for a first-round playoff battle Wednesday at 7 p.m. if it is the third seed.
If Galena gets upset by McQueen today, Spanish Springs will be the HDL’s No. 2 seed and host a playoff tilt Wednesday against North Valleys.
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