At the time, it seemed like a typical politically correct comment by a humble coach, but after Friday night’s High Desert League battle, maybe there’s a little bit of a soothsayer in him.
Reno needed a 17-point fourth-quarter outburst to break a tie and secure a 46-37 victory at home over the Raiders.
“We wanted to make it a ballgame,” Reed girls basketball coach Sara Schopper said. “In the fourth quarter, it was still a winnable game. We know they can shoot it, so we pressured the shooters. We challenged (Sarah) Finlay and (Stephanie) Rovetti to beat us. I think the game plan worked. They made some free throws and we didn’t. It was a good game.”
While Reno’s all-league guard tandem of Finlay and Rovetti were off their games for most of the contest, the duo stepped up late to help push the Huskies ahead.
Reed’s Nyasha LeSure hit a jumper from the free-throw line, pushing the Raiders ahead 22-17 with 3:26 left in the third.
Reno tied it when Rovetti went coast-to-coast for two of her game-high 17 points, and Elizabeth Messick converted a three-point play.
With Reed’s leading-scorer, Danielle Peacon, taking a quick breather, the Huskies forced a turnover and snatched the lead when Rovetti went the distance for a layup, capping a 7-0 run. It was Reno’s first lead since it was 15-14 at the 2:01 mark in the second quarter.
With the game knotted at 26-26, Finlay knocked down a wide-open 3-pointer to make it a 29-26 game heading into the fourth quarter.
However, the Raiders ended that momentum thanks to a LeSure three-point play, tying the game at 29-29 in the first minute of the fourth period.
That was as good as it got for the visitors.
Finlay hit another trey to start an 8-0 run. Rovetti made a free throw when she was intentionally grabbed from behind on a breakaway. Messick then scored down low on a dish by Rovetti, and Finlay added a free throw for a 36-29 score with 3:09 to play.
“When Reno High gets any lead, they like to stall,” Schopper said. “Defensively, you start to lose confidence because you don’t know if you should go out and pressure or stay in and protect baseline. They do a great job of being patient on offense, so they’re either getting fouled or taking a good shot.”
Reed still had a shot though.
Peacon banked in a 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to 41-37 with 30 seconds on the clock.
Reno tried to go for a touchdown pass, but Peacon intercepted the inbounds pass. Peacon tried to make back-to-back treys but her shot was off the mark and the Raiders never scored again.
Peacon finished with a team-high 16, while LeSure added nine.
Finlay had 14 in the winning cause.
“Today I thought we had their number a little bit. We made them adjust to us, and that’s a good thing,” Schopper said. “Our girls still have a lot of growing. We have a month before playoffs. Hopefully in that month we’ll execute and knock down free throws. I think the last two games have been nice builders for us. Hopefully we’ll be where we need to be when playoffs start.”
Reed (9-4, 4-2 HDL) is back in action today at North Valleys. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:15 p.m.
Boys:
There was no way Reno was going to take Reed lightly after needing a fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Raiders at the east Sparks school two and a half weeks ago.
The Huskies trailed 4-3 but that was it Friday night as Reno surged to a 61-46 league victory behind the 23-point performance by Trevor English.
“We just worked on what we’ve been working on,” Reed boys basketball coach Dustin Hall said. “We put in a couple new sets. Reno was prepared. They made a couple plays and that really disrupted us. We felt if we took care of the basketball and rebounded, we’d have a chance. We just weren’t quite there.”
English scored eight of his team’s 15 points in the first quarter to help the Huskies claim a 15-10 advantage after the first eight minutes of play.
Irvin Ma came off the bench and drained a 3-pointer for Reed, and Taylor Yancey tied the game at 15-15 with a layup. But the Raiders could not get over the hump.
Reno poured in the final seven points of the half to take a 30-18 lead into the locker room.
After falling behind by 16, Reed was able to make it a single-digit gap again on a Yuriy Ikovlev three-point bomb, but that was as close as the Blue and Gold would get after the break.
Another 7-0 run by the hosts padded the cushion to 16 points, 42-26.
While English only had four points combined between quarters two and three, he had nine in the final eight minutes to keep the Raiders from threatening.
Mike Powell was the only other player on either team to score in double figures. The Reed senior had 12 in the loss.
The Raiders (2-13, 1-5 HDL) will try to erase this loss from their memories and get back to work today as they travel to North Valleys for a 5 p.m. game.
“It’s tough, especially when you’re playing a Reno in the first game and you put a lot of energy into preparing for them. Then you come out and play a very good North Valleys team tomorrow,” Hall said. “We’re going to get up early tomorrow morning and start preparing and forget about this one.”
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