Spanish Springs (17-10, 6-4) clinched a postseason bid last Friday when both Hug and McQueen lost league games. On Tuesday, Hug (5-6 HDL) won at McQueen 60-57, knocking the Lancers out of postseason contention. The victory cemented a playoff invitation for Hug.
Spanish Springs has two league games remaining — at home against McQueen Friday and at Reed Saturday. If the Cougars were to fall in their final two regular season games, and Hug wins its league finale at Elko Friday, both teams would finish HDL play at 6-6. Despite a potential tie, Spanish Springs would still be the HDL’s third seed thanks to its season sweep of Hug.
“It’s a nice thing for our kids. Ultimately they had a goal to get back to the playoffs. We are there and we’re happy were in,” Spanish Springs coach Christine Eckles said. “Now we want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the season.”
The playoff berth is just the third in the eight-year history of the Spanish Springs girls hoop program. Spanish Springs earned a playoff berth in 2003-04, its third year of existence. That’s the shortest time span any Northern 4A school has taken to garner its initial postseason bid.
Spanish Springs finished 20-10 a year ago and reached the Northern 4A semifinals. This year marks the first time the school has posted back-to-back playoff berths.
"It's very rewarding," Spanish Springs senior all-league forward Courtney Darby said. "It feels good because we'd not gotten there for a few years now our group has gone back-to-back. We are not the most dominating, but we've all worked hard to get where we are."
The SSHS squad will travel to play the Sierra League’s second playoff seed in a first-round regional playoff Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Cougars will play either Bishop Manogue or Galena.
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