Someone must have left a door open to the Reed High gymnasium because the prep boys basketball game between the Raiders and Elko was ice cold Friday night.

Reed is already a less than stellar shooting squad, but the invisible lid on the basket made matters more difficult. Luckily for the home crowd, the visiting Indians were much worse as the Raiders went on to win 48-26 in the High Desert League clash.

“Defensively I was happy, but obviously I feel bad for anyone who had to watch that first quarter,” Reed coach Dustin Hall said. “Neither team could hit a shot to save their lives. It wasn’t like we were taking bad shots. We got open looks that we’re normally comfortable with, but we just couldn’t get the ball to go in from the outside.”

The two teams combined for 13 points in the opening quarter with Elko taking a 7-6 lead into the second period of play. It was also the last time the eastern Nevada school would lead.

While the shooting got a little better for Reed in the second eight minutes, it only got worse for the Indians, opening up a gap between the league rivals.

After missing their first 12 three-point attempts, Chris Hackler came off the bench for the Raiders and swished a trey from the corner, pushing Reed’s edge to 18-7 with 1:30 left on the clock.

Elko’s offense was held scoreless for 10 minutes, but the Indians avoided a second-quarter shutout thanks to a single free throw with 37 seconds remaining in the first half.

The Blue and Gold enjoyed a 20-8 cushion at the break.

The Raiders went up by a 25-8 score on a Mike Powell 3-pointer. Powell led all scorers with 16 points.

It took the Indians 17 minutes of game action to get out of single digits on the scoreboard. But they all of a sudden remembered how to score, going on an 8-0 run during a minute and a half span and forcing a Reed timeout.

And with that, Elko’s glory ended after cutting the deficit to single digits for the final time, 25-16.

Reed dominated the last five minutes of the third quarter and took a 36-20 advantage into the fourth quarter where the lead only grew.

“We came out with some intensity after the half,” Hall said. “Thirty seconds into it, we put up five points. I liked how we came out. We had a little bit of a lapse there when they went on an 8-0 run. Basically our defense was as good as it’s been from start to finish this season. We were beating guys to spots and getting our hands on loose balls. I was really proud of the defense tonight.”

Reed senior D’Marshae Vann finally found his touch and scored six straight points as part of a 9-0 Raiders spurt to open the fourth quarter. The 45-20 score was the largest margin of the night.

Jimmy McPherson was the lone Indian in double figures with 11 points.

Aaron Iffrig added eight points in the winning cause. All RHS players seeing action scored.

Reed (9-10, 5-3 HDL) is off until Friday and Saturday of next week when the Raiders face Hug on back-to-back days. Friday night’s contest is in the Rail City at 7 p.m.

Girls Basketball

Reed 75, Elko 37

Leilani Young helped the Raiders score the first eight points of the game by knocking down two 3-pointers, but Elko rallied back to make it an 8-6 game.

Danielle Peacon’s emergence proved to be too much for the Indians as the junior forward poured in 29 points. She had eight points in the final four minutes of the first quarter, helping Reed start the rout.

By outscoring the hosts 24-7 in the second quarter, Reed sealed the game and took it easy in the second half.

Senior point guard Erica McKenzie added 14 points for the Raiders, who buried nine treys in the HDL contest.

Reed improves to 13-7 overall and 7-2 in the High Desert League.