Based on this past week, the Sierra League boys basketball race should be one fun, wild ride. And even though the Tigers lost, Douglas should be right in the middle of it.
Douglas fell at Reno High 62-59 on Friday. The Tigers fell to 2-1 in league while Reno improved to 3-1. Hug, which was coming off a 76-75 win over Reno, came into Friday's game at 2-0 in league.
The game went back and forth as Douglas built an 11-point lead in the second quarter before Reno came back to cut the deficit to 29-24 at halftime. Reno outscored the Tigers 13-5 in the third quarter to take a 37-34 lead and built a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter.
But Douglas came back to take a 56-55 lead on Keith Olson's basket. But the Tigers were then called for a foul on a three-point shot attempt.
Reno made the first two foul shots and after missing the third, grabbed the offensive rebound. Douglas never could quite overcome that sequence.
"That was the dagger," said Douglas coach Rob Streeter about the sequence. "We were playing catchup from there."
"They kind of jumped into the defense," Streeter also said about the foul on the shot, which he said came from about 25 feet. "It was a tough call in a tough spot.
But Streeter didn't want to dwell on the call. "We just didn't do some little things but the kids played extremely hard," Streeter said.
"There's some positives to build on. We know we have to take care of some little things to win some big games. The outcome could have been different."
Down 60-56, Olson hit a three to pull Douglas to within 60-59. Reno's Austin Morgan made two foul shots for the final margin. Douglas still had a chance to tie in the end, but couldn't convert.
After struggling from the foul line, Reno was also able to make its foul shots down the stretch, hitting 10-of-13 in the fourth quarter. The Huskies were 13-of-22 for the game. Douglas was also 13-of-22 from the line, including 3-of-5 in the fourth quarter.
Olson scored 28 points and Michael Gransbery added 14 points. After sitting out the first quarter because he missed a workout, Olek Czyz scored 29 points for Reno, but Morgan was held to just 11 points due in large part to Gransbery.
"Michael Gransbery did an outstanding job," Streeter said. "Our kids showed some nice character. We battled back. It was a great high school atmosphere."