When R.O.P beat Manogue in overtime last Friday night, there wasn't a happier person in Northern Nevada than Dayton basketball coach Rob Streeter.
The win clinched the No. 1 seed in the Northern 3A playoffs for the Rams, a team the Dust Devils have already beaten this season. And if Dayton wins its first round playoff game against North Tahoe today at 4:40 at R.O.P, it will face the Rams in the semifinals on Friday. The winner of that game would clinch a berth into the state tournament, not to mention a shot at the Northern 3A championship.
"We're just going to take care of business tomorrow and talk about R.O.P on Friday," Streeter said. "We have some experienced kids back and we've been in division games before. We've been expected to win division games before. We came up five points short of making the state tournament last year. We don't want that to happen again. We want it to be five points the other way this time."
Streeter and the fourth-seeded Dust Devils lost to Fernley last year in the 3rd-4th place game, missing out on the state tournament as only the top three teams qualified. He likes his team's chances again this year, even if they had to play Manogue in the second round, which would've been a possibility had it beaten R.O.P last Friday.
The Miners and Rams both received first round byes this year.
"The kids felt the last time we played Manogue, we kind of gave one way," Streeter said of Dayton's 74-58 loss last Wednesday to the Miners."We didn't execute in the third quarter in that game. We've put ourselves in kind of a nice position. We're real excited about our chances."
Fifth-seeded North Tahoe (7-15) has lost both times this season to the Dust Devils. On Jan. 4, Dayton (16-10) overcame a 26 percent shooting night to beat the Lakers 41-32. Then on Feb. 1 in Tahoe City, Jake Deen had 17 points and 12 rebounds in a 59-39 win.
"The first game we didn't shoot very well and it was the first league game for both teams and we came out a little nervous," Streeter said. "The second game we shot the ball a lot better and Jake Deen had a huge game."
In today's other boys game, third-seeded Lowry (16-10) plays sixth-seeded Truckee (6-18) tonight at 8.
On the girls side, fourth-seeded Spring Creek (12-12) plays fifth-seeded Dayton (10-15) today at 3. Third-seeded North Tahoe (9-13) plays sixth-seeded Fernley (12-14) tonight at 6:20. Lowry earned the No. 1 seed and Manogue the No. 2 seed. Both teams have first round byes. All games are at R.O.P.
