RENO -- If the Douglas High's girls' basketball team has a weakness it's a lack of patience, and it reared its ugly head Wednesday night.
The young Tigers took some ill-advised shots and committed three critical turnovers in the final two minutes, and Las Vegas ripped off 12 unanswered points on the way to a 44-39 win in the opening round of the NIAA/4A Championships at Lawlor Events Center.
The loss ended Douglas' dream of making it to the state finals for the second straight year. The Tigers finished 18-10, which is a solid record, but it was tough to console coach Werner Christen and his team, many of whom were crying as they left the locker room.
"Maybe tomorrow we'll look back and see what we accomplished," Christen said softly. "This was worse than the finals last year. We just melted down.
"We took some shots that were head shakers. We didn't make our free throws, and we missed two or three one-footers. This was a tough one. I feel bad for our seniors (Emily Haas, Tarrah Kizer, and Brit Christen). They are three good kids. Hopefully we can learn from this."
The collapse happened so fast.
Douglas was sitting pretty with a 39-32 lead after Erin Brinkmeyer's layup with 1:56 left in the contest. That's when Douglas, which only scored five fourth-quarter points, went into a huge funk at both ends of the floor.
Melisa Cejas made it 39-34 with 1:36 left, and two Douglas turnovers later, the Wildcats had trimmed the lead to 39-38 with 44.2 left thanks to a bucket by Kim Etol (13 points) and two free throws by Stacey Pena. Douglas had a chance to end the skid, but Brittany Puzey missed the front end of a one-and-one situation.
The rebound was batted around, and Cejas came up with the ball, and was fouled. She hit two free throws to give Las Vegas a 40-39 advantage, its first lead since late in the first half.
Puzey drove the baseline, but her reverse layup, perhaps a bit forced, didn't draw iron. Cejas grabbed the rebound amid two Douglas players, and was fouled. She hit two more free throws to make it 42-39. Las Vegas intercepted Puzey's pass near midcourt, and the clock had struck 12 on the Tigers.
"Brittany and Erin do a great job taking the ball to the hole," Christen said. "If we had made one or two of those one-footers, we're OK. The kids didn't really panic, we just missed some shots. We had some open looks."
"We played smart, made the right defensive plays and hit our foul shots down the stretch," Las Vegas coach Bill Giguere said of his team's brilliant finish. "It was very much a team effort tonight."
Four different players scored in the final quarter, led by Etol with seven and Cejas with six. Cejas scored six points, pulled down six rebounds and blocked a shot in the final eight minutes. She also did a nice job down the stretch defending Haas, who finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds.
A big mystery was the Tigers' reluctance or inability to get the ball to Haas down on the block. After scoring 14 points in the first three quarters, she managed just three free throws in the final eight minutes, and missed her only field-goal attempt.
"I don't have a reason," Christen said. "We ran good plays to get it inside for a while, and then we stopped doing it."
Douglas, again, got off to its customary slow start. Etol scored five quick points to give the Wildcats an 11-2 lead with 2:21 left in the quarter. A blowout loss looked like a good possibility.
The Tigers put together a nice 18-7 run to end the half with a 21-17 lead, as Haas scored eight points in that stretch.
"I didn't get too concerned," Christen said. "Usually we find a way to fight back. I knew we would get back into it."
An 8-4 run, led by Haas and Brinkmeyer, gave the Tigers what appeared to be a comfortable 34-25 lead after three quarters.
That set the stage for a fourth quarter, the Tigers won't soon forget.
Centennial 75, Chapparal 31
The defending state champs got 17 points from Ashley Blake, 11 from Jordyn Bowen and 10 from Whitney Price in its easy victory.
Centennial outscored Chapparal 38-14 in the middle two quarters to build a 48-18 advantage. Blake, who didn't play in the fourth quarter, had 15 points in that span. Five other players helped out by scoring at least four points, showing Centennial's balance.
Kim Fox led Chapparal with 19 points, including 10 in the final quarter when the outcome was already decided.
Bishop Gorman 48, Fallon 37
Bishop Gorman rode the 18-point effort of Breona Gray to knock off the Greenwave, setting up a showdown with Las Vegas today at 5.
Bishop Gorman took the lead for good late in the second quarter, and kept Fallon at bay. In fact, Fallon never scored more than 10 points in a quarter until the fourth when it managed 13. Terrin Johnston led Fallon with 11 points.
Notes: With Reno High's 60-51 loss to Western, it's the first time ever that all of the Northern teams have been eliminated in the state tournament's first round.