Darrell Moody
SOUTH TAHOE, Calif. - Nick Summers, who grew up in Zephyr Cove and attended Whittell High for one year, loves to play at South Tahoe High against some of his old teammates from his Little League and Pop Warner days.
He led the Tigers to an upset win last year, and he continued his magic this season. The Tigers' point guard threw down 19 points, including three clutch free throws in the final 84 seconds, to lead Douglas to a 64-56 Sierra League win over the Vikings Friday night.
The win upped Douglas' record to 2-0 in league entering today's game (5 p.m.) against Hug, one of the most athletic teams in the league.
"It was a good atmosphere (to play in) tonight," said Summers, who enjoyed his best scoring game of the season. "It's like coming home.
"I'm not really worried about scoring points. We're winning, and that's what important. We've already won a lot more games (11) than we did last year (7)."
It was Summers and freshman center Keith Olson (17 points, 12 rebounds, 6 blocks) that played big roles in Douglas' 18-point fourth quarter.
South Tahoe closed Douglas' lead to 44-41 with 4.5 left in the third period, but Summers sliced in for a layup to make it 46-41 after three periods.
That started an 8-0 Douglas run, as the Tigers upped their lead to 52-41 with 7:03 left in the game. After a trey by Mikey Van Gorden, Summers knocked down a foul shot and Olson scored four straight to make it 57-43.
Using a trapping zone press, the Vikings scored seven straight to make it 57-50. Olson and Summers each hit three foul shots in the next two-plus minutes to push the lead to 63-53 with less than 30 seconds left in the game.
"We let it get away in that one stretch (of the fourth quarter)," said Derek Allister, South Tahoe head coach. "It's been a recurring thing for us. In each of our three (league) losses, we've had one bad stretch. Douglas played well. They have a nice team."
"I'm pleased with the effort," said Douglas coach Keith Lewis, who watched his team fall behind 9-2 early in the first quarter. "This was a big win. We didn't give them many opportunities (in the fourth period)."
Dan Tobin led the Vikings with 18 points, and Casey Curcie and Jared Wood added 11 apiece.
Douglas 59, South Tahoe girls 35
Four players reached double figures to lead the Tigers (2-0, 11-6) to an easy Sierra League win over the Vikings (0-3).
Brittany Puzey led the way with 17 points followed by Erin Brinkmeyer 14, Julie Gingrich 10 and Dana Pardee 10. Puzey also pulled down a team-leading six rebounds.
This one was over early. Brinkmeyer opened the game with seven straight points, sparking Douglas to an 11-2 lead after one period.
Douglas outscored the mistake-prone Vikings 8-0 in the first 2:45 of the second quarter, boosting its lead to 19-2. Douglas scored 12 of the next 14 points thanks to two layups by Gingrich and four points by Pardee to take a 31-6 lead with 57.2 left in the half. Four free throws by Tiffany Pinson made it 31-10 at the half.
"We were sloppy," Douglas coach Werner Christen said after the lopsided win. "For some reason, we were doing our own stuff again tonight. We executed very poorly, and for the most part, I thought the effort was poor."
The lopsided score may have had something to do with it. Still, Christen wasn't happy being outrebounded 40-26 and the 27 turnovers his team made.
"I hope not (that the players overlooked Tahoe)," he said. "We can't do that against anyone. We can't look past anybody.
"I thought we played hard early, but for some reason we got into a comfort zone. I thought our rebounding effort except for Brittany, Colleen Carlson and Andrea (Bryant) early on, wasn't very good."
