Manogue has too much for Lady Tigers

Through the first 22 minutes of the game, there simply wasn't much separating the Douglas' girls basketball team and the Manogue Miners.

The Miners held a 34-32 edge and Douglas had outscored Manogue 7-5 in the quarter.

With two minutes left in the third quarter, however, the Miners came alive, running off what would end up being a 25-4 run to close out the game and claim a 59-36 victory in the first round of the Northern 4A Regional playoffs in South Reno.

"We let them go on a couple runs late in the game and we couldn't recover," Douglas coach Werner Christen said. "They didn't really change anything on us, they just started beating us in transition and their bigs did a great job of attacking the basket."

Manogue's standout post Taylor Sylvester finished with 17 points, but it was forward Ashley Armstrong who proved to be the element the Tigers couldn't overcome as she hauled in 16 rebounds and scored a game-high 22 points.

Jessica Waggoner led Douglas with 15 points in the game, nine of which came in the first half.

Douglas built a 14-11 lead in the first quarter and sandwiched a 7-0 run through the opening two quarters to take a 16-11 lead.

Manogue called a timeout however, readjusted and came back to go on a 14-0 run, pushing the score to 26-18.

"I've watched a lot of tape on them, but this was the first time this season they've used a zone defense," Christen said. "They did a great job of keeping us off-balance.

"They made adjustments when they had to and shut some things down that were working for us early on. They did a very good job of forcing us out of our operational areas."

While the Tigers never regained the lead after Manogue's big first-half run, they did manage to claw their way back into the game, getting seven points from Waggoner in the last two minutes of the first half.

Waggoner was fouled with 0.09 seconds left and a Manogue player was then called for a technical foul after slamming the ball into the court. Waggoner converted three of the four shots she was awarded to bring Douglas back to within 29-25.

"We felt pretty good at halftime, but we just couldn't get over the hump," Christen said. "Our pick-and-roll was working pretty well in the first half, and we had some set stuff that worked, but they did a good job of taking those things away from us."

The two teams held each other scoreless through the first two and a half minutes of the second half before Bridget Maestretti drew Douglas to within one with a 3-pointer.

Manogue answered with a basket and a foul, but Waggoner hit a basket to keep Douglas within two at 32-30.

Sylvester hit another basket before Taryn Williams scored on a back-door cut to bring Douglas back within two at 34-32.

That was as close as the Tigers would get however as Sylvester and Armstrong combined for the game's next eight points.

Waggoner would hit two more baskets in the fourth quarter, completing Douglas' scoring for the game, while a Manogue 3-pointer with 5:40 left essentially put the game out of reach at 47-34. From there, the Miners ran away with it.

For Douglas, Maestretti and Dana Pardee each had six points, Dany Heidt had five, Williams had two and Sarah Hartley had one.

Douglas wrapped up its season with a 14-17 record overall after winning five of its last six regular season games. Manogue advances to play Reno in the Northern 4A Regional semifinals Thursday night at Spanish Springs.