Despite seeing a 15-point halftime lead shrink to two, and despite playing against a rival on the road, the Dayton High boys basketball team stayed composed like the playoff-tested team it is.
And after posting a 72-56 victory against Fernley on Friday night - coupled with Yerington's 57-54 overtime loss at Incline - the DustDevils can call themselves Northern 3A league champions.
"I'm real happy, for our community, for our school, and for our former players who got the ball rolling here the last two or three years," coach Rob Streeter said after Dayton's boys secured the first regular season championship in the history of the program.
Dayton (12-4, 19-9) ended its regular season ahead of Yerington (10-5, 20-6, with a game at home against Sparks today), and the Dust Devils will host the Northern 3A Regional Tournament next week.
Dayton led 38-23 at halftime and 52-41 at the end of three quarters. But with Austin Chaney scoring 11 of his 17 points in the final period, the Vaqueros cut the gap to two with four minutes left.
"I give coach (coach Dave) Burns a lot of credit for keeping his guys focused and motivated," Streeter said. "It was their Senior Night, the gym was packed, they hit some shots, got some momentum. But our guys kept their composure and executed some sets."
Danny Hopper and Trent Wood scored 12 points each, Shane Castro 11 and Josh Wagoner 10 to lead Dayton. Wood scored eight in the fourth quarter.
GIRLS
FERNLEY 59, DAYTON 36
April Shaw, Lacey LaVoie and Becky Murphy combined to score 48 points and ignite a third quarter surge that helped Fernley pull away.
Shaw scored 20 points, while LaVoie and Murphy added 14 each for the Vaqueros (9-5, 11-10. LaVoie scored eight points and the backcourt tandem of LaVoie led a pressing defense as Fernley broke the game open with a 25-10 third-quarter run.
"We owed them one from last time over there," said Fernley coach Ralph Dunn. "We played well, especially on defense."
Amanda Sbragia scored 21 points to lead Dayton (8-7, 13-12).
2A BOYS
ROP 64, WHITTELL 58, OT
Quan Baker took over in overtime, scoring seven of his game-high 25 points to help Rite of Passage (9-2, 10-12).
Baker, a 6-2 point guard, had nine steals and five assists to go with his 25 points. Robert McFalls also had 13 points and nine rebounds, Phillip Williams 12 points and 11 rebounds and Charon Jackson added 12 points.
Whittell had four players score in doubled figures, led by Brian Vogt with 16 points, Chris Shapiro 13, Tommy Esquivel 11 and Brian Hanshew 10.