BY JOEY CRANDALL
Nevada Appeal News Service
MINDEN " Things may have start off a little shaky on defense Tuesday night, but once the Douglas girls' basketball team settled down, everything seemed to fall into place.
Douglas put together a shutout for nearly seven minutes through the middle of the game and the Lady Tigers ran away with a 68-39 win over Damonte Ranch at Douglas High School.
The win boosted Douglas to 1-2 in Sierra League play with a match at Wooster looming at the end of the week.
Damonte Ranch was able to match Douglas nearly basket-for-basket over the first four minutes of the game but the Tigers went on a 13-2 run after adjusting its full-court press.
"We were a little disappointed with how we started defensively," Douglas coach Werner Christen said. "It was just a matter of us rotating back on our pressure. Damonte was getting a lot of weak-side stuff off of our pressure.
"We actually changed some angles and cut some things down in our spacing trying to contain them. We ended up having a couple stretches there that worked out really well for us."
Douglas had another 13-2 run over the first four minutes of the second quarter and essentially put the game away with a 17-2 run that stretched from a minute remaining in the first half to the fifth minute of the third quarter.
Each of those runs was sparked by numerous transition baskets created by the Tigers' press.
"When our defense creates our offense like that, it's exactly what we need," Christen said. "We had a lot of people getting good touches and I thought we finished our sets very well. That's the best we've finished this year."
Douglas' Jessica Waggoner led all scorers with 29 points, 21 of which came in the first half. Taryn Williams had 10 points, Ne'Jae Jackson had nine points, Jackie Harper scored five, Maci Pfaffenberger, Dany Heidt and Bri Burnside each scored four, Ally Freitas had two and Megan Michitarian wrapped up the Tigers' scoring with one.
Kiera O'Driscoll led the Mustangs with 14 points.
DAMONTE RANCH BOYS 68, DOUGLAS 55
Damonte Ranch used its up-tempo game to blow past Douglas on Tuesday at Douglas High School.
Luigi Terrana led the Mustangs with 24 points, a good portion of which came on the run as the Mustangs fought through the Tigers' full-court press defense.
Damonte Ranch led for all but about two minutes of the game, getting 14 points from Kyle Brush and eight from Josh Butler.
The closest Douglas got was in the second quarter when the Tigers fought back from an eight-point deficit to take a one-point lead with three minutes remaining in the second quarter.
The Mustangs reclaimed the lead 26 seconds later on a dunk from Butler and went on a 13-0 run to close out the half.
Douglas would later narrow the gap to nine at 45-36 on a runner from James McLaughlin, but the Mustangs went on an 8-2 run to grab control back.
McLaughlin saw his first significant playing time of the season, leading the Tigers with 15 points in his first home game since returning from a broken leg suffered during football season.
McLaughlin first entered the game midway through the second quarter and had scored a team-leading seven points within three minutes.
Douglas also got 12 points from Parker Robertson and 11 from Tim Rudnick. Garrett Getty and Nick Hales each scored four, Chris Downs scored three and Tyler Hoelzen, Austin Neddenriep and Jorey Scott each had two in the loss.
Douglas (3-12 overall, 0-2 in league) travels to Wooster Friday for a 7 p.m. game and returns home to host Galena Saturday at 5 p.m.
GALENA GIRLS 73, FALLON 41
Emily Burns scored a team-high 16 points as Galena moved to 3-0 in the Sierra League (11-5 overall) with a victory over the Greenwave.
Taylor Shaller added 13 points for the Grizzlies, who turned a 20-16 first-quarter lead into a 48-20 halftime advantage.
VIRGINIA CITY BOYS 80, EXCEL CHRISTIAN ACADEMY 49
Zach Shell scored a team-high 26 points for the Muckers, who improved to 2-0 in league and 4-9 overall. Joe Avignone added 14 and Cody Burrell chipped in 12 more for Virginia City.
CARSON JV BOYS 65, WOOSTER 46
Matt Cooper led the Senators with 17 points and Trey Jensen pumped in 13 as Carson moved to 2-0 in Sierra League play and 9-2 overall.
CARSON JV GIRLS 50, WOOSTER 29
Kendra Krupp scored a team-high 18 points, Ashley Saarem added 12 and Jazmyn Stokes contributed eight more for the Senators.
CARSON FROSH GIRLS 64, WOOSTER 16
Allison Vondrak and Megan Justice each had six rebounds to lead Carson. Taya Rains had three steals and Taylor-rae Canfield and Morgan Kleine each had four assists for Carson, which improved to 15-1 overall and 2-0 in Sierra League play.