Galena boys beat McQueen

Appeal Staff Report

The Galena High boys basketball team improved to 9-0 in the High Desert League with a 73-56 win over McQueen on Friday.

Galena continued to play well without one of its key players, Eric Maupin, who is indefinitely out with a knee injury.

"It was a great, great win without Maupin again," Galena coach Tom Maurer said. "I thought it was a great team effort against a very much improved McQueen team. They've gotten better."

Galena also did a solid job of containing two of McQueen's top players, Matt LaGrone, who scored eight points, and Peter Newell, who had 13 points. Maurer said J.D. Peters and Eric Bischoff did a solid job on LaGrone and Newell.

"It was a great, great basketball game for us because they made runs," Maurer said. "I thought we did an outstanding job controlling the tempo when we had to."

Luke Babbitt scored 31 points, Tristan Hill had 16 points and Brice Crook added 14 points. The three combined to score 61 points, well above what's expected of them, Maurer said.

"Those are the three kids we kind of count on with Maupin out to put points on the board," Maurer said.

YERINGTON 64, TRUCKEE 49

Tyler Brown hit all four of his three-pointers for all 12 of his points in the second quarter to help lead the Lions to a comeback win. Yerington hit five threes in the second quarter as it closed to 29-28 at halftime after trailing 13-7 after one quarter.

Yerington led 44-38 after three quarters and outscored Truckee 20-11 in the fourth quarter to pull away for the win. The Lions (15-8, 8-5) solidified their hold on fourth in the Northern 3A.

Gary Smith scored 11 points and Scot Veil added 10 points for Yerington. "We got off to a cold start," Lions coach Daron Wildermuth said. "If you throw out the first we played pretty well. I was happy with holding them under 50 points."

SOUTH TAHOE 53, DOUGLAS 48

Douglas High's quest for a Northern 4A playoff spot was made more difficult by a heartbreaking loss at home. The Vikings stayed in third in the Sierra League at 7-4 while Douglas fell one game behind 6-5 North Valleys at 5-6 for the fourth and final playoff spot. It doesn't get any easier for the Tigers, who travel to face Hug today.

Douglas led 46-45 when the Vikings hit a three-pointer with 36 seconds left to take the lead for good at 48-46. South Tahoe hit 17-of-20 foul shots (85 percent) and 10-of-10 in the fourth quarter. Jared Wood was 8-of-8 in the fourth quarter. Douglas was 6-of-12 for the game.

Keith Olson scored eight of his 11 points in the fourth quarter. Douglas coach Rob Streeter praised the defensive play of Nate Whalin and Michael Gransbery. "They made the plays at the end and we didn't," Streeter said.

GALENA GIRLS 50, MCQUEEN 30

Galena outscored McQueen 11-3 in the third quarter to take control in improving to 9-0 in league.

"We kind of picked up our defense a little bit, got some layups," said Galena coach Karen Friel, whose team led 26-16 at halftime.

Caitlin Crofts scored 17 points and Caitlin Anderson and Langley Iverson each added eight points.