Dayton boys win zone crown

The Dayton High boys basketball team has its zone title. But there's still unfinished business.

Dayton won the Northern 3A title with a 46-39 win over Spring Creek on Saturday in Winnemucca. The Dust Devils and Spring Creek will play in a rematch in the NIAA 3A State semifinals at 8 p.m. Friday at Spanish Springs.

Yerington became the other team from the North to advance to the state semifinals when it beat Sparks 45-44 on Saturday. The Lions will play in the other state semifinal at 4:40 p.m. Friday at Spanish Springs. The two winners will meet for the state title at 1:40 p.m. Saturday at Lawlor Events Center.

The Dust Devils are making their fourth straight trip to the state tournament. Dayton has finished as state runner-up twice, but has never won the state crown. "One more week," Dayton coach T.W. Cunningham said. "One more great week."

Spring Creek led 15-10 after one quarter and 23-18 at halftime. But Dayton outscored the Spartans 11-5 in the third quarter to take a 29-28 lead and outscored Spring Creek 17-11 in the final period.

"We just talked about being a lot more physical," said Cunningham about what he told his team at halftime. "We just made a couple of adjustments."

One of the adjustments came in Dayton's zone defense, Cunningham said. Cunningham said the tempo the game was to Dayton's liking.

"We kind of slowed the game down on them," Cunningham said. "We tried to run on them, but that didn't really help us."

Cunningham said he believes his team can play any style. "It's been good that we've kind of don all of it throughout the year," he said. "We can change."

Jordan Stokes scored 23 points and Jacob Jones, Shane Castro and Erik Hopper all added six points. Cunningham also praised Hopper's defense. "Hopper had a great game," he said.

Even though Saturday's game was essentially a meaningless contest as far as state seedings went, Cunningham said he had no trouble motivating his team.

"If you're not excited to play in the zone championship game, you probably should be playing," he said.