Boys' Basketball: Tigers sweep past Vikings

There were enough distractions Tuesday night that any one of them could've jumped up to catch the Douglas boys' basketball team off guard.

It was senior night. The team was wearing throwback uniforms from the late 90s. They were coming off a tough home loss to Manogue and they also have a rivalry matchup at Carson High looming at the end of the week.

None of it phased the Tigers.

Douglas rode a strong defensive effort to a 76-39 win over South Tahoe in Minden to wrap up the regular season home schedule.

"There was a lot of stuff going on," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "But the kids stayed focused and played really well."

Douglas held South Tahoe to just 15 points in the second half and didn't allow a field goal over the final 10 minutes of the game.

"The first half was so-so, but the whole team played very focused through the second," Thacker said. "The guys were crashing the boards, we got 12 offensive rebounds in the second and we held them to 15 points over the final two quarers. That's where we need to be."

On the other end, the Tigers got balanced scoring from throughout its lineup with freshman Hunter Myers (17 points), senior Brett Anderson (16) and senior Luis Pina-Duarte (11) all finishing in double-figures scoring.

"It's good to go out at home like this, especially for the seniors," Thacker said.

South Tahoe got seven points from Garrett Tinlin and six each from Ricky Braun and Peter Pialaet-Strayer in the loss.

The Vikings stayed within six points through the first quarter and closed it down to five points at 23-18 with 5:27 left in the first half, but Douglas a 9-0 run to close out the half and pull away.

The Tigers also got eight points from Chris Downs, seven from Austin Neddenriep, six from Nick Maestretti, four from Matt Thomas, two each from Jeremy Burkhart, Theo Denson and Kameron VanWinkle each had two and Jorey Scott had one in the win.

Thomas Eidham had four points for South Tahoe, Kory DiGrande and Griffen Boles each had three and McQuade Brubaker and Jalen Quistgard each had two and Rylan Tepper and Wade Norberg each had one in the loss.

Douglas will now face Carson Friday night at 7 p.m. in Carson City with home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs on the line.

"There is a lot of incentive out there for both teams," Thacker said. "Carson's a great team and it'll be a great game. Home court advantage is huge in the playoffs so both teams are really going to be battling for it."

It's good to go out at home like this, especially for the seniors. I think home court advantage is huge, especially for a younger team like this. Carson's a great team, but there is a lot of incentive out there for both teams.