Girls' Basketball: Lady Tigers take second at High Sierra Classic

Bolstered by a gritty-win over fifth-ranked Spanish Springs Saturday afternoon, the Douglas High girls' basketball team got its first shot of the season at No. 2 Reno four hours later.

As it was, the Huskies simply had more depth and handled the four-hour layover between games by jumping on the Tigers for a 73-30 win in the championship game of the High Sierra Winter Classic.

"That was a new scenario for us," Douglas coach Werner Christen said. "We've had two games in a day before, but never a semifinal and a final in the same stretch. It was a great learning experience. I don't know if we were emotionally ready to play that final game four hours after Spanish Springs."

Christen said Reno got out on an early run and that things snow-balled from there.

"We'll get better," Christen said. "Reno got out on one of their rolls and they just did a good job of pushing us around and playing a lot more physical than we were. We're not discouraged. We'll keep learning and working through this preseason to get ready for league play."

The loss came on the heels of a 49-41 over the previously unbeaten Cougars at Spanish Springs High School.

"Our pressure defense gave them problems," Christen said. "We jumped out to a big lead early, but Spanish Springs had a really nice late rally and hit some big shots. It was a good high school basketball game and we played very well and beat a very talented team."

Except for the Reno game, it was a solid tournament for the Tigers as they improved to 5-1 on the year with wins over Lassen (56-27) and Hug (47-29) as well.

"Our team defense is pretty much what got us to the finals," Christen said. "We did a little better job than the first week of finishing off of the turnovers we caused and making the right decisions when we forced a turnover.

"As a team we did a very good job of making the extra pass on the offensive end."

While Christen credited the entire team's efforts, Jessica Waggoner and Bridget Maestretti earned all-tournament honors for their play over the weekend.

After playing the first two weeks of the season on the road, the Lady Tigers will be home through the next two weeks, starting with Galena Tuesday, Lowry Friday and Fallon on Saturday.

The Douglas freshman girls' basketball team took second in the High Sierra Winter Classic in Reno over the weekend, beating Galena 31-11 and Reno 35-18 before losing to Lassen in the championship.

Against Galena, Brianne Burnside scored eight points, Naomi Roberts scored six, Jackie Harper had five, Kathleen Salazar had four and Natalie Freitas, Megan King, Carly McCullough and Samantha Dressler each had two.

Reno was undefeated coming into the semifinal matchup, but Douglas took a 16-13 lead through the first half.

After some halftime adjustments, the Tigers held the Huskies to just five points in the second half to advance to the championship game.

Burnside again led the Tigers with 12, Harper scored 10 and Alex Laing added seven.

Freitas, Sophie Wilson and Roberts each added two.

In the championship, Douglas fell 24-16 against a taller Lassen team.

Roberts led the Tigers with five points, Burnside had three and Freitas, Harper, Laing and Jennifer Gorton each added two.