PREP: Dayton girls, VC boys post easy wins at Comstock Classic

VIRGINIA CITY - Virginia City boys basketball coach Hector Bucchianeri thought it was "cool" that the Muckers shut out Wells in the first quarter of Thursday night's opening round game of the Comstock Classic.

The Muckers, who played without starting point guard Zach Shell, scored 17 unanswered points in the opening eight minutes en route to an easy 60-33 win over Wells in their home opener.

"Not since I coached JV's here has that happened," Bucchianeri said. "I didn't realize it until the end of the quarter."

The win gives Virginia City a 3-4 record entering today's action. The Muckers will play the Galena JV team (1:30) and Lund (7:30).

"Any time you win your home opener it's great," Bucchianeri said. "As you can see we have a lot of rough edges, but we have a lot of time to work on them."

Bucchianeri would probably love to bottle that first quarter for future use.

Ryan Conners dropped in two 3-pointers, Kurt Lynch hit one from long range and Adam Young scored two buckets. Justin Avignone and Ethan Huffman contributed a bucket apiece.

The closest Wells ever got was 11 points, 21-10, with 1:44 left in the half on a 3-pointer by Brady Mayhew. V.C. upped the lead to 15 at the half and to 24, 45-21, after three quarters. The Muckers' biggest lead was 58-24 with less than three minutes remaining in the game.

The game got very wild after the first quarter. Virginia City forced up some questionable shots and had some problems finishing around the rim. Against Wells it was no big deal, but against better teams it could be a problem as the season goes on.

"We don't know what to do with the lead," Bucchianeri said. "We started to throw the ball around."

And, that wasn't limited to just the starters. Even the bench players were careless when they got their opportunities.

Conners led the Muckers with 17, while Huffman added 10. Lynch and Young added nine each. Andrew Woolsey led Wells with 15 points.

Girls

Dayton 42, Lund 28

Taylor Hill was a one-woman show in the first half, as she scored 16 of her game-high 22 to lead the Dust Devils to an easy win over the 1A Mustangs.

The win upped Dayton's record to 4-1 on the young season, and sets the Dust Devils up nicely for their showdown at noon today against host Virginia City, the defending zone and state 1A champions.

"She (Taylor Hill) was right on," first-year Dayton coach Cliff Serawop said. "She hit jump shots and drove to the basket. She was fired up."

Hill scored Dayton's first eight points and ended up with 13 in the first quarter, as Dayton built a 15-8 lead.

Thing didn't get much better for the Mustangs in the second quarter. Dayton scored seven straight points in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the second quarter to build a 22-8 lead. Hill ended the run when she banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Lund, thanks to a 6-2 run, managed to get it to 24-14 at halftime, but that's as close as Lund got the rest of the way. Lund shot just 25 percent in the first half and turned the ball over 12 times.

"We're pretty good with our zone defense," Serawop said. "We try to help each other out. She (Melynda Boren) started out hot, but then we corralled her a little bit."

Boren did score 12, six of those coming in the opening six minutes, and then she scored only six more during the final 26 minutes.

Dayton shot 38 percent from the floor for the game, and it would have been much higher if had been able to finish at the basket.

"With all the new girls we have they get really excited and they don't know how to adjust," Serawop said. "We have to clean that up."

Lund closed to 36-25 with 4:40 left, but Serawop brought his starters back end and regained control of the game.

Wells 45, Virginia City 30

The Leopards held the defending state champs scoreless for more than five minutes in the second half en route to the opening round win.

A putback by Virginia City's Jill Dupre (14 points) cut Wells' lead to 27-19 with 4:06 left in the third quarter. However, the Lady Muckers didn't score again until 6:53 remained in the game, and by that time they trailed 33-21.

In that span, the Lady Muckers went 0-for-6 from the floor and turned the ball over five times. In fact, it was a putback by Micah Blakely that ended the drought. Virginia City never got closer than 12 the remainder of the game and scored just four points in the third quarter when Wells gained control of the game for good.

"I could have done something different," coach Todd Hess said. "I let them try to play their way through it. I don't want us to be playing our best basketball now. Our goal is to be the best we can be in February.

"Turnovers led to our trouble. We're a young team trying to find our way. We have some role players from last year we've inserted, and it's taking some time. The effort is there. They are working hard."

Wells coach Clay Fitch said prior to the game that he had graduated all of his height from the previous year, but had a lot quickness. Ericka Pengelly had 10 steals, as she managed to get into passing lanes and pressure the ball.

"It (quickness) has been a real strength," Fitch said. "We have a lot of speed. We have three different options (on defense). We have an experienced young team.

"I knew they would try to go to Dupre (in that second-half run). We did everything we could to get under screens or through them so she would have to shoot from the outside."

Emily Pengelly finished with 11 and Ericka Pengelly led with 15.

Today's schedule for local teams

Girls

Noon - Dayton vs. Virginia City at VCHS

6 p.m. - Dayton vs. Wells at VCMS

6 p.m. - Virginia City vs. Lund at VCHS

Boys

1:30 p.m. - Virginia City vs. Galena JV at VCHS

7:30 p.m. - Lund vs. Virginia City at VCHS