BY JOEY CRANDALL
Nevada Appeal News Service
Clinging to a three-point lead with just under four minutes left, it appeared the Douglas boys basketball team was destined to go down to the wire for the second time in as many nights.
The Tigers had other ideas, however, putting together a 7-2 run to get the distance it needed in a 57-50 win over South Tahoe at Douglas High School on Saturday.
While the run provided a little cushion, the Vikings refused to go away, outscoring the Tigers 7-5 over the final minute of play.
"We're happy to get away with a win," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "The kids were definitely solid there toward the end, but you look at that last minute, we were giving up too many second-chances and gave them too much hope down the stretch."
The win boosted Douglas back to the .500 mark in league play after a 63-60 loss to top-ranked Manogue Friday night.
For a period of time Saturday, the Tigers appeared ready to run away with the game. Douglas took a 25-17 lead into halftime and shut the Vikings out over the first five minutes of the third quarter. Nine points during that same stretch put Douglas up 24-17, but as with much of the night, the Vikings remained resilient.
South Tahoe's Chris Klug went on a personal 6-0 run, closing the gap to 34-23 and forcing a Douglas timeout. Coming out, the Vikings stretched the run to 10-1 with a basket from Garrett Tinlin and a pair of Klug free throws, setting the score at 35-27.
"We had a good stretch to start the quarter, just playing solid man defense and making sure we weren't giving them those extra opportunities," Thacker said. "They came right back though, mostly on second-chance baskets. That's something we'll have to work on."
The eight-point difference remained with Douglas taking a 39-31 lead into the fourth. After a James McLaughlin 3-pointer, the Vikings went on yet another 10-1 run, this time closing the gap to 43-41 on a 3-pointer from Klug.
Thacker called a timeout and Douglas came back out with what would end up being a 9-2 run, setting the score at 52-43 with a minute left.
Tinlin scored a basket to cut the score to 52-45, but Douglas put the game away at the free throw line with Luis Pina-Duarte and Parker Robertson each hitting two and Tim Rudnick hitting one in the final minute.
Douglas (3-3 in Sierra League play, 6-13 overall) got balanced scoring throughout its roster as Rudnick, Robertson, Pina-Duarte and Cale Pete shared the team lead with seven points each. McLaughlin and Austin Neddenriep each had six, Nick Hales had five and Garrett Getty and Tyler Hoelzen each had four.
South Tahoe (1-5, 4-11,) was led by Klug with 16 points while Tinlin had 12, Kyle Dupree had seven, Kory DiGrande had five and Ricky Braun had five.