Oasis Academy senior Taylynn Maynez tries to score against Incline on Senior Night last week.
Photo by Thomas Ranson.
For the first time, the Oasis Academy girls basketball team will play in the postseason.
The Bighorns clinched the sixth and final playoff berth with a 49-31 win over Incline last week, advancing to the Class 2A Northern tournament.
After finishing with an 8-10 league record, Oasis will take on No. 3 Battle Mountain (14-4) in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 3 p.m. at Pershing County High School in Lovelock. The winner advances to Friday’s semifinal against No. 2 North Tahoe (14-3) at 3 p.m. The championship is at noon on Saturday. The top two teams advance to next week’s state tournament in Las Vegas.
“I am just excited for this opportunity for our team. The girls have been working extremely hard this year, and it’s a great feeling qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in school history,” coach Amanda Larsen said. “The girls are really motivated and I am incredibly proud of them.”
Oasis faces a Longhorns team that had the upper edge during the regular season.
On Jan. 10, Battle Mountain defeated Oasis, 46-27, after building an 11-point lead in the first quarter. An 18-point third quarter sealed the win for Battle Mountain as its defense limited the Bighorns to single digits in all four quarters.
Two weeks later, the Longhorns won 33-21 in a contest that saw Battle Mountain lead by only one at halftime. The Bighorns didn’t score in the fourth quarter, allowing Battle Mountain to increase its lead to double digits.
Since that Jan. 24 loss, though, Oasis Academy finished 4-3, including a pair of wins over Incline and Sierra Lutheran to close the season out on a winning streak.
“We’re one of the smallest and youngest teams in our league and so I hope that us doing this can show that we too, can be competitive in the 2A,” Larsen said.
In last Wednesday’s win over Incline on Senior Night, junior Grace Laca led the team with 24 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks for the double-double, while the team’s lone senior, Taylynn Maynez, finished with eight points. Sophomore Emma Lewis scored seven points. Lewis also had six rebounds. Four players recorded three steals.
Oasis closed out the regular season with a 27-20 win at Sierra Lutheran on Saturday.
BIGHORN BOYS FINISH ON WINNING NOTE
After a pair of blowouts earlier in the week, the Oasis Academy boys basketball team defeated Sierra Lutheran, 58-43, in Saturday’s regular-season finale.
“Battling through all these obstacles made this win special,” said Oasis coach Don Schank, who had multiple players out due to injury and sickness, resulting in calling up three junior varsity players. “What I was most impressed with about this team this season was the never-quit and constant work-as-hard-as-you-can attitude.”
The Bighorns didn’t qualify for the Class 2A Northern tournament, finishing eighth (5-13) in the league.
In the final game of the year that saw the Bighorns avenge a 12-point loss, senior Fenn Mackedon led the team with 22 points, including three 3-pointers.
Junior Trevor Barrenchea scored 15 points and grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds for a double-double. Freshman Jackson Snow added 10 points, and both Barrenchea and Snow each hit two 3-pointers. Mackedon was one rebound (nine) shy of a double-double, and junior Zander Sheldon-Davis had eight rebounds.
Barrenchea led in assists (eight) and steals (four), while Mackedon had a team-high four blocks.
Earlier in the week, Oasis Academy lost at Pershing County, 66-32.
Mackedon led the team with 12 points and junior Kayden White had eight; both each hit two 3-pointers. Mackedon had a team-high seven rebounds and four blocks, Barrenchea and sophomore Jose Montalvo each had three assists, and Barrenchea added three steals.
In an 82-19 loss to Incline on Senior Night on Wednesday, Mackedon led the team with eight points, including two 3’s, and Barrenchea had seven. Sheldon-Davis and Barrenchea each pulled down two rebounds, and Mackedon had three assists, one steal and one block.
Senior Zach Budner, who was battling an injury, played after being recognized before the game.
Mackedon finished his career as the all-time leader with 1,114 points, 815 Rebounds, 125 blocks and 72 assists.