BY JOEY CRANDALL
Nevada Appeal News Service
RENO " Battling through a five-game skid and a night away from their biggest game of the season so far, the Douglas boys basketball team needed to get well in a hurry.
Get well they did " in a big way.
Douglas picked up its first league win of the season, taking a 93-60 win over the Colts at Wooster High School, setting up Saturday night's matchup with Galena.
"This was a good one," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "Just for our camaraderie and our confidence, just considering all the things that have happened to the team recently.
"We had a good week of practice and we expected to come out well tonight. We want to come out well tomorrow. Galena won't be the same type of game, but we want to bring the same type of energy and the same type of defensive effort out that we had tonight."
All nine Douglas players who played in the game put points on the board, with four players finishing in double figures.
"Our guys shared the ball well," Thacker said. "That's how we're going to score, when we're sharing the ball. Every guy out there tonight shared it and hit the open guy. When we do that, good things are going to happen."
Senior Nick Hales led the charge with 23 points, including a 13-of-18 performance at the free-throw line, Cale Pete and Tim Rudnick each scored 17 and Tyler Hoelzen posted a career-best 14 points.
Garrett Getty added seven, Jorey Scott had five, Parker Robertson and Austin Neddenriep each had four and Chris Downs added two to round out the scoring.
Hales scored eight of the Tigers' first 12 points in the game as Douglas (4-12 overall, 1-2 Sierra League) built a slim lead through the first four minutes of the game. The Tigers put together a 12-2 run to stretch its lead to 22-11.
Hoelzen hit a pair of 3-pointers to open the second quarter to further extend the lead. Scott hit a layup and a free-throw, Hales had a basket and Hoelzen hit the front-end of a one-and-one to complete another 12-2 run, this time working the score to 34-16.
The Tigers closed out the first half on a 12-0 run, highlighted by a 3-pointer from Rudnick and five points from Pete, to push the score to 50-23.
Hales got Douglas going again in the second half, scoring the Tigers' first five points, followed by baskets from Rudnick, Scott, Hoelzen and Pete, and a string of four consecutive made free throws from Robertson and Hales to work the score to 67-32.
Getty converted a conventional three-point play and followed that with a basket at the buzzer give Douglas a 72-34 lead headed into the fourth quarter.
Douglas twice led by 40 in the fourth quarter, the first coming on a basket from Pete 10 seconds in to push the score to 74-34, and the second at the 3:10 mark when Neddenriep scored a basket to make it 86-46.
Wooster had a late rally over the final 2:35, going on a 9-1 run to close the gap slightly.
DOUGLAS GIRLS 53, WOOSTER 36
Sometimes it just takes a brief pause in the action to get things rolling again.
Just ask the Douglas girls basketball team.
The Tigers were nursing a five-point lead against a much-improved Wooster squad when a simple timeout changed the complexion of the game.
Douglas broke from the timeout with 2:53 left in the third quarter and went on a 10-0 run to get the distance they needed, eventually picking up a 53-36 win Friday at Wooster High School.
"We got them in there and just reminded them to keep their pace and slow things down a bit," Douglas coach Werner Christen said. "We were just going too fast."
Douglas put up 45 percent of its points in the game after that timeout, running noticeably crisper sets and making a number of nice passes along the way.
Jessica Waggoner led the Tigers with 19 points, Taryn Williams and Dany Heidt each had nine, Ally Freitas had eight, Katie Dry had six and Ne'Jae Jackson and Bri Burnside each had one.
The Tigers struggled to settle into a rhythm offensively to start, but got a strong performance from their defense to keep things going.
The teams worked the score to a 9-9 tie through the first quarter, but Wooster took a 14-12 lead with 4:49 left in the half.
Douglas clamped down defensively, holding the Colts scoreless through most of the remainder of the half. Wooster scored at the buzzer, but Douglas had taken a 21-16 lead in the meantime, marking the third consecutive game the Tigers defense has strung together at least one stretch of four or more scoreless minutes.
"We had another good defensive sequence in there," Christen said. "That was big. The defense did a good job all night of creating offense for us. Bri Burnside in particular did a real good job on top of the trap. She forced some turnovers and had some smart plays out there.
"We did a real good job of not giving up second chances. They had a lot of one-and-dones. They only had four offensive rebounds in the first half, and they are a real aggressive, good rebounding team. I thought we did a good job of keeping it to one shot."
With the win, the Tigers improved to .500 in league play (2-2, 11-8 overall) on the year, heading into what could be their toughest week of the season.
"We needed two wins this week and we were able to do that (coupled with Tuesday's win over Damonte Ranch)," Christen said. "We were worried about this one. Wooster is good, they are well-coached. They are much better this year.
"We're headed into a big week with Manogue and South Tahoe next Friday and Saturday. Manogue is the team everyone is picking to win the league, so it's a big week. In more ways than one. It's finals week, so we'll have four days to prepare for those games, but they'll also have to get things taken care of in the classroom. Emotionally it's a tough week. We'll see how it goes."