By Dave Belcher
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley High School Varsity Boy’s Basketball team is searching and searching for ways to score with the basketball. The search forces the team to do a lot of shooting during practices, hoping to find a touch from the outside. Their inability to score from the outside has forced the team to play inside the paint where MVHS senior Jackson Mortensen has made his living.
Last week the Pirates played two games with the first taking place in Boulder City. Always a hostile environment as these two rivals have met for years, each taking opportunities to undo the other in whatever the challenge. Twice in recent years, the two teams have played against each other for the state championship. Both times the Eagles came away with the title. Moapa has the most recent state title taken two years ago.
Last week was another chapter as both teams are trying to get there again. Boulder City has a team full of seniors and one sophomore. All the peaches in one basket. Will this year be a final run for the Eagles for a while?
Moapa has a young team building for a future. With the realignment and the new league the Vegas schools will have something to play with as they flex their muscles.
Last week, when Moapa travelled to Boulder City, the Pirates quieted the home crowd and took a 14-10 lead after the first quarter. Then the Pirates sunk into two single digit quarters and were taken out of the game. The Eagles outscored the Pirates in the second and third quarters 27-12 to build a lead. Boulder City eventually won the game with a score of 54-42.
Jackson Mortensen led the Pirates with 17 points as he scored on several offensive rebounds working hard under the basket. Justin Hughes added 12.
For the Eagles it was Worrell and Bailey who took top scoring honors with 16 and 13 points respectively.
So the Pirates had a single season win heading home Thursday for a very tough test: the Desert Pines Jaguars. The star player for the Jaguars is Julian Jacobs, a recruit who has signed next year with the USC Trojans.
Desert Pines is a contender for the IA crown along with Clark High School. If you judge them by their performance in Overton last Thursday night, it would be hard to believe there was anyone better.
Jacobs played only seven minutes in the game, four in the 1st quarter and three in the 3rd as he scored 16 points in that time frame. In fact the first string was taken out about the same time. The seconds played the better part of the game.
The Jaguars scored 22 points in the first quarter to open up a 17 point lead right away. They had a 38-16 lead at the half.
The starters came in for a few minutes of the third as the Jags pushed the lead to 63-29 by the end of the third. Moapa had 3 points in the fourth quarter as Desert Pines ended the game a 77-32 winner.
I didn’t know there was a running clock rule in basketball until the third quarter when Desert Pines gained a forty point lead. The officials then started the clock and it didn’t stop.
The clock stops only for time outs. It runs until the game ends. Apparently the rulemakers feel that it is impossible to come back from forty points behind because once the clock starts the score has no stopping point and it will not stop; not even in case of a tie. So said the official between quarters.
The reason for the running clock is the rule that if a team beat another team by more than forty, the coach would have to write a letter explaining why the score was above a forty point lead at the finish of the game. When a team would approach a 35 point lead the head coach would go into a stall so his team wouldn’t go over the forty point spread causing him to do some writing. The running clock was the alternative so the second half was quick. This rule started last season.
Justin Hughes and Lance Hilton lead the Pirates with 8 points apiece. Mortensen finished with 7.
Jacobs had his 16 while Myles scored 13 and Keith had 12 for Desert Pines.
This Saturday the Pirates will be playing the Virgin Valley Bulldogs. Enough said.
