Remembering the Pirate Glory Days: The 2011 Basketball State Championship

Editor’s note: The following article is the first in a summer series that remembers some of the best moments in MVHS Sports history.

By DAVE BELCHER

Moapa Valley Progress

The NIAA change from the old 3A to the current IA was still a couple years away in the 2010-11 basketball season; the last time the Moapa Valley High School Pirates won a state championship. After that change, the league would no longer contain just the smaller schools from Nevada. The realignment would change the scene as the larger schools from the 4A who couldn’t win or compete with the likes of Gorman, Palo Verde and Centennial moved into the 3A. This was supposed to form competitive balance and help morale in the Las Vegas area. But it has made it difficult, since then, for smaller schools to make it to the championships.

In any case, in 2011 the southern half of the league consisted of only Moapa Valley, Virgin Valley and Boulder City. This often forced these schools to travel far distances to schedule games that would complete their schedules.

It also meant only four league games and a league tournament would decide who would be the single representative from the south in the four-team state tournament. At that time the northern schools had three of the four representatives because they had nine total teams in their league.

The 2011 season was supposed to belong to Virgin Valley. The Bulldogs had gone 4-0 in league play having beaten both Boulder City and the Pirates in the four league games. Moapa Valley was 2-2 in league play having beat Boulder City both times. Boulder City was 0-4.
Virgin Valley and Moapa Valley played four times that season with the Bulldogs winning three of the four.

Virgin Valley beat the Pirates 49-44 in the first meeting in Mesquite at the Virgin Valley Invitational. The Bulldogs also won the first league game in Moapa Valley a blowout 53-28. And they won again in Virgin Valley 50-47.

It would be the fourth game that would change the tide, sending the Pirates on their way to their last basketball state championship.
Overall The Bulldogs finished with a 15-10 record. Cameron Jensen scored 20 points a game for the Bulldogs during that season leading the state 3A. In the final regular season game with Moapa Valley he had scored 31 points including 12-12 from the free throw line in the Bulldogs 50-47 win. He was an 80% free throw shooter.

The southern division tournament started on February 17. Virgin Valley had received the bye until the title game. That meant Boulder City and the Pirates met at Durango High School.
The Pirates had four scorers in the double figures. Dakota Watters with 13, Casen Lewis with 13, Hayden Cooper with 16 and Josh Thompson who scored a game-leading 23 points. Thompson was 4-4 from the three point range leading the Pirates who made 10 total three-pointers for the game.

Moapa Valley took an 18-10 lead after the first quarter. Boulder City caught fire in the second quarter scoring 26 points and owning a 36-34 lead at half time. The Pirates defense came alive in the third quarter holding the Eagles to 6 points then went on a 19-6 run through the third quarter. In the fourth quarter Moapa Valley outscored the Eagles 21-14 and ran away from the Eagles for a 74-56 win and league championship game matchup with the Bulldogs two days later.

In that game, Virgin Valley had a tough time finding the basket. Cameron Jensen was the only Bulldog who could score that night putting up 16 points total, four short of his average. Virgin Valley had two leads that night, 2-0 and 5-2. Moapa Valley held a 13-7 lead after the first quarter.
But Virgin Valley closed the gap in the second quarter with a 12-7 run bringing them to within one point by half time 20-19.

This was a hard fought defensive battle that had the Pirates holding the Bulldogs to 10-44 shooting for the game. In fact the Bulldogs only scored four field goals the whole second half, 10 points in the third quarter where the Pirates built a 10 point lead at 39-29. In the fourth neither team scored as the defense dominated.

Virgin Valley came within four points with a minute to play and put the Pirates on the free throw line. Moapa Valley made 6-6 from the free throw line to win the game 47-37 and qualify for the state tournament.

In the first game of the tournament a week later Moapa Valley played the third seed from the north in South Tahoe who had been 20-5 on the season with a 14 game home winning streak at the time and host of the northern tournament.
The Pirates had a 14-10 lead after the first quarter and pushed it to a 28-21 lead by half time.
The Pirates then built a 15 point lead with three minutes to play in the third and led by 12 to start the fourth.

But Moapa Valley struggled to get the ball up the floor as South Tahoe turned up the pressure with a press. The South Tahoe team had maken up the lost ground and had a one point lead in the final minute of the game.

Then Hayden Cooper took a pass from Josh Thompson who was pressured. Cooper caught the ball near half court where he took the ball up the left side line to the base line and followed it to the rim where he was fouled on the shot. His first free throw tied the game with 1.5 seconds remaining in the game.
After a South Tahoe time out Cooper missed the second shot, sending the game into overtime.

That’s when the Pirates took control. Dakota Watters hit a three to start it off. The Pirates outscored the Vikings in overtime for the win. They thus earned a game against Lowry who had beaten defending champion Sparks in the other semi-final game.
The north was divided into two leagues at the time; combined with the 2A to reduce their travel time. Lowry had come into the title game with a 16 game win streak.

In the final game, the Buckaroos held a two point lead after the first quarter, 12-10. Moapa Valley trailed by eight at halftime 29-21 and the Buckaroos had pushed that lead to 14 with three minutes to play in the third quarter.
After a TV timeout Moapa Valley went into their full court press. This caused the Buckaroos to turn the ball over again and again and again.
The Pirates went on a ten point run to close out the quarter, trailing Lowry 44-40.

Moapa Valley then scored five points with a Cooper layup, then a Thompson three. This gave the Pirates the lead at last.
Lowry was to take the lead one last time with a three-pointer of their own.
But the Pirates went on a 13-4 run and gained a 57-49 lead with just under three minutes to play in the game.
So, with twenty seven seconds left in the game, the Pirates went to the line six times making 5-6 for a final 68-56 score.

In the final eleven minutes of the game Moapa Valley outscored the Buckaroos 38-12 making that game one that Pirate fans would remember forever.

Those with materials, information or suggestions about historic games that could be covered in this series please contact Dave Belcher at dabelch@mvdsl.com.