By Dave Belcher

Moapa Valley Progress

The Spring Valley High School Lady Grizzlies travelled to Moapa Valley for the first time in their history and the meeting that resulted will, no doubt, go down as one of the most exciting games this season. At the same time, it may be one of the most frustrating. On a night when the band comes back to play for the basketball games bringing the gym to life with the music and students, the Lady Pirates went home somewhat disappointed.

Spring Valley started the game with a 17-15 lead after the first quarter.

Both teams were making their shots. For Spring Valley it was Espiritu with 14 and Davison with 13 who lead the Grizzly’s in scoring. Moore grabbed 13 rebounds and contributing her inside presence spurring the Grizzly to a 34-27 half time lead and finally the win. Spring Valley shot 13-36 from the line.

On the Moapa side it was Ashley Noto who fueled the fire for the Pirates with 21 points while Chanel Lacriox added 11 as the Pirates hung close. The Pirates outscored the Grizzlies 11-7 in the third quarter to trail by only three going into the final quarter.

With the intensity of the game the Moapa crowd came to life during the final quarter as the Pirates fought their way into firing range to win the game.

But it was the performance at the line of shame that did them in. In this game there were 85 free throws shot. That’s right 85. Moapa shot 49. They made only 23. Most of those were in the first half. It was in the fourth quarter that audience was pulling its hair out as the Pirates missed free throw after free throw after free throw. Only 1 for 15 during the final quarter.

Ten girls fouled out in this thing, five from each side! Hopefully those officials will forget how to get here and will not return as they did not do a very good job.

The final score was 57- 55.

Moapa had two put backs in the final seconds that wouldn’t drop for a tie. So Spring Valley went home with the win.

On Friday it was the Basic Wolves who came to town to challenge the Lady Pirates. Basic had beaten both Boulder City and Virgin Valley earlier in the season and now it was time for the Pirates to get the win for the 3A.

Basic was 9-4 for the season and the 12th ranked girl’s team in the state.

Kallia Brantner was the leading scorer for Basic as she dominated the Pirates from the inside scoring 16 of her total 28 in the first half of the game.

Moapa came out aggressive in this game as they pushed the ball in their five guard offence. Lacroix made her first three “3” pointers, keeping the Pirates close and not allowing the Wolves to get too far ahead.

After the first quarter Basic lead 11-8 then added to the lead with three more to the total and a 25-19 half time advantage.

Moapa scored 16 in the third quarter while Basic had 18. Again Moapa shot 33 free throws which were 12 more than what Basic shot which was 21. Basic made 11 Moapa made 12. They missed as many as Basic shot!

In the fourth quarter each team scored 10 points and Basic came away with the win 53-45.

Next week the Pirates head to the Dawg house for the match up against Virgin Valley. Game time is 6:00 pm.