MINDEN - As it turned out, the first four minutes of Friday night's game between the second-ranked Reno girls' basketball team and Douglas High proved to be all the difference.
The Huskies got out to a 14-0 lead and didn't look back, taking a 56-29 win over the Lady Tigers to claim sole-possession of first place in the Sierra League.
"We got out to a slow start and we just couldn't overcome it," Douglas coach Werner Christen said. "You're not going to beat anyone when you start out in a 14-0 hole, especially against a team like Reno."
For the first half, Douglas couldn't get much offense going at all, outside of center Jessica Waggoner.
Waggoner was a force inside, scoring 14 of Douglas' 16 first-half points.
For as bad as the game started out for the Tigers, they managed to cut the lead back down in a hurry.
Douglas managed to put together a 7-0 run over the final two minutes to the half to walk into the locker room trailing 25-16.
The Tigers continued the momentum in the third quarter, cutting the lead to as few as eight, but Reno's depth proved to be too much to overcome.
The Huskies went on an 18-2 run to start the fourth quarter, putting the game away.
"I was happy with the way we got back into the game, we only trailed by 11 heading into the fourth, but Reno is just so good and deep," Christen said. "If we had started halfway decent, maybe it's a different game."
Raimy Novacek scored 14 points to lead the Huskies, Abby Boorman had 12, Christina Gough had nine and Sarah Finlay had eight.
Waggoner led all scorers with 18, Bridget Maestretti had five for Douglas and Dany Heidt, Helen Fillmore and Taryn Williams each had two.