Douglas High boys basketball
Dakota Jones (5) raises up for a bucket Tuesday night in the Tigers' second win over Reno High this season.
Photo by Ron Harpin.
Defensive stops in the third quarter allowed Douglas High boys basketball to cruise to a 57-39 win over Reno High Tuesday night.
The Tigers led 23-18 at the half, but with 4:05 left in the third quarter they had ballooned their lead to 35-21.
Douglas used its pressure defense and interior presence to get stop after stop resulting in a 12-3 run.
Up 31-19, Thomas McDowell backed down his defender before hitting him with the spin move for an inside basket giving Douglas a 14-point edge.
A couple possessions later, Chris Smalley stuffed a Reno shooter before going down and earning an and-one opportunity, which gave Douglas a 39-21 edge.
Reno closed the third quarter on a 7-0 run, but the Tigers allowed the Huskies to muster just six points in the next six minutes.
“First half was a slow start, but after we talked and communicated we did pretty well after that,” said McDowell, who had nine points in the win.
Along with McDowell and Smalley, Kasen Boggs, Caden Thacker and Theo Reid were all able to pick away multiple steals to get possession back in the Tigers’ favor.
After a few stops to open the fourth quarter, Reid hit Connor Ward for a bucket in the paint.
Smalley added another block in the fourth quarter, which allowed Boggs to get to the free throw line on the other end, giving Douglas a 42-28 lead.
Reno held Boggs to seven points on the evening with a box-and-one defense that seemed intent on taking away Douglas’ leading scorer this season.
“We’ve talked about what we’re going to do against it,” said Douglas head coach Corey Thacker. “We haven’t played against it though, so it was new to us.”
Whenever Boggs did touch the ball, a second Husky defender quickly came with additional help.
In response, the Tigers had buckets from nine different scorers and were led Thacker’s team-high 11 points.
“Defensively, we could work a little harder, but I thought we did pretty good today,” said McDowell. “That was a big impact on our part just for all the fast breaks we got off of blocks and steals.”
Douglas mixed and matched defensive looks between man and zone, as well as occasionally throwing a press at the Huskies.
UP NEXT: Douglas (10-6, 5-3 in Class 5A North) will welcome Carson (7-9, 3-5) to town Thursday in a make-up game after last Friday’s contest was postponed. Friday, Douglas will take on Damonte Ranch (6-9, 4-5).
Tuesday night boys’ area scores
Bishop Manogue 72, Carson 43
McQueen 48, Damonte Ranch 43
Spanish Springs 64, Galena 39
