Rams too much for Dust Devils
Dave Price
SPANISH SPRINGS - This time, there was no magical run to the state tournament for the Dayton High School boys basketball team.
Kevin Deshields and the Rite of Passage Rams were simply too much to handle on their way to a 72-44 victory against Dayton Friday afternoon at Spanish Springs High School in the semifinals of the NIAA 3A State Tournament, presented by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Deshields had 16 points and seven assists to lead Rite of Passage (24-6) past Dayton (14-15) in a rubber match between the two Northern 3A divisional rivals.
The win was ROP's first in 3A state tournament play and gives the Rams their first trip to Lawlor Events Center, where they will play Moapa Valley in the 3A boys championship game tonight at Lawlor Events Center. Moapa Valley defeated Bishop Manogue 55-54 in the other 3A semifinal Friday night at Spanish Springs.
"We've won (state tournament) games when we were in 1A and 2A, but this is our first in 3A," Rite of Passage coach Eric Jordan said. "We've been trying for four years, now we finally get to play at Lawlor."
Dayton fell short in its bid to return to the state finals - the Dust Devils lost a 45-44 overtime decision to Moapa Valley in the finals last year - but closed the book on what coach Rob Streeter described as a highly successful season.
"I'm real proud of this year's team," Streeter said. "Not a lot of people gave us much of a chance to get here, and we did. Top four in the state, if we can do that year in and year out, we'll be all right."
Dayton split two regular season meetings against ROP, the most recent a 78-74 overtime win in Yerington earlier this month. This time, the Rams jumped out to a 19-7 first-quarter lead and never looked back.
"ROP, when they're focused, they're tough to beat," Streeter said. "I thought they set the tone in the first quarter, the way they shot the ball and hit the boards. I know we didn't have a lot of stops in the first five minutes."
The Rams finished with a 40-27 advantage in rebounds, many of which came on the offensive end to give them second and third shots at the basket. Andre Reed grabbed 13 rebounds, four on the offensive end, and Devin Barefield pulled down five of his six rebounds on the offensive end.
ROP led 34-19 at halftime and broke the game wide open by scoring 13 unanswered points to start the third quarter.
"I just told the kids that we had to come out and play the next half like it was our last half of the season," Jordan said. "We wanted to pressure the ball, take good shots and try to capitalize on their mistakes."
Barefield converted a three-point play to start the run, then moments later, Deshields stirred up some excitement when he took the ball down the floor on a fast break and dished off a pass between his legs to Jermaine Parker for a layup. Deshields followed that up by knocking down a 3-pointer, then he assisted Parker on a 3-pointer that extended ROP's lead to 45-19.
Adam Diament scored 15 points to lead Dayton offensively, while Daniel Hopper added eight. In all, nine players scored for the Dust Devils.
"If you looked out there the last three-and-a-half minutes, you saw we had two freshmen, one sophomore and one junior on the floor. We've got a lot of good things to look forward to out in Dayton."