Galena High boys basketball coach Tom Maurer has authored a tale of two teams. The right team has showed up for the Northern 4A playoffs.
The Grizzlies clinched a berth in the NIAA State Championships sponsored by U.S. Bank with a 61-39 win over Reno High on Friday at Carson High. In the process, Galena advanced to today's 8 p.m. zone title game at Carson.
Maurer said his club is actually two teams -- team A and team B. Team A was the one that swept High Desert League champion Reed. Team B was the one that ended the regular season with losses at Sparks and Elko.
Maurer is glad to see team A has shown up for the playoffs. "We want team A to come out one more time," he said. "I hope they've got some eligibility left."
Reno's 22-point loss was a bitter pill to swallow for Huskies coach Pete Padgett. Apparently there's no love lost between the two programs because when Maurer stuck his hand out to Padgett after the game, Padgett didn't reciprocate.
Padgett's mood probably wasn't helped by the fact that 22 fouls were called against his team while only seven were called against Galena. The Grizzlies went 16-of-23 from the foul line while Reno didn't take one free throw.
For his part, Maurer expressed no contempt and nothing but praise for Reno.
"I've got nothing by good compliments for that team," Maurer said. "This is an extremely good team with a lot of good players. I'm excited because we beat a very good team."
Getting Reno into foul trouble in the first half was one of the keys to Galena building a 30-17 halftime lead. "We were fortunate to get to the foul line," Maurer said.
But that wasn't the only key. Galena had only four turnovers in the first half while forcing Reno into 14 and 26 for the game.
"I thought that was big," Maurer said. "I think they put a lot of pressure on you and I think we put a lot of pressure on you."
While Maurer was pleased with the way his team took care of the ball, he was also pleased with his team's defense. "Defense wins championships," he said.
Another key to his team rebounding from two regular-season losses is that it always looks ahead, Maurer said. "They're a punching bag that bounces back," he said.
After Reno's Scott Jeannes hit a three to give Reno a 17-15 lead. But Tommy Myers responed with a three to begin a 15-0 run that gave Galena a 30-17 lead.
The Grizzlies then broke the game open in the third quarter, taking a 45-23 lead, although judging by how antimated Maurer was on the bench, one would have thought his team was down by 22 points.
That prompted the Reno student section to chant, "shut up Maurer," which led to the Grizzly student section to respond with the chant, "scoreboard, scoreboard."
As Galena built a 25-point lead in the fourth quarter, The Grizzly student section began to chant, "we want Padgett," referring to Reno's 6-11 David Padgett, who is out with a season-ending injury. That prompted the chant from the Reno student section of "Kansas, Kansas," referring to the program Padgett will be playing for next year.
But the Galena student section had the last word at the end of the game with chants of "overrated" and "it's all over" as the Grizzlies' Nick Zuccarini scored on a putback for the final margin.
Derek Lorenzen scored 17 points for Galena. "We all played real well and we played real hard," Lorenzen said. "We'll just do our best and see how far we go."
Dalton Turnbow added 11 points, Myers scored 10 points and Whip Thompson and Sheldon Hutchins each had eight points for Galena.
1A BASKETBALL
Virginia City, which had already clinched a berth into the state championships, advanced to today's Northern 1A title game with a 50-42 win over Eureka on Friday at Spring Creek. Kyle Lynch scored 22 points and Will Turman added 11 points for the Muckers.
In Thursday's 47-39 win over Jackpot, Curry Lynch scored 25 points and Kevin Lynch added nine points for Virginia City.