By DARRELL MOODY
Nevada Appeal News Service
MINDEN - Thanks to a five-minute drought at the outset of the fourth quarter, Douglas High's boys' basketball team fell from the ranks of the unbeaten Tuesday night.
Reno's Scott Jeannes scored five of his eight fourth-quarter points in that span to spark the Huskies to a 57-44 victory over the Tigers, and more importantly grab a share of the lead in the Sierra League standings.
Douglas, Reno and Hug are all 3-1 in league play. Douglas is on the road at Wooster (Friday) and Carson (Saturday), and will have its hands full in both contests.
"I don't think we played very well across the board," Douglas coach Keith Lewis said after a brief meeting with his team. "We took quick shots, we forced shots. We didn't execute well offensively.
"I thought we were tight. I don't know if it was a football thing (Reno beat DHS for zone title) or not. My hats off to Reno. They beat us. We let them dictate the tempo."
And, the Tigers failed to get freshman center Keith Olson involved in the game. The 6-9 freshman took only six shots from the floor, hitting four of them and finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds. It was a far cry from Saturday night when the youngster scored 35, and his teammates looked to him first for scoring opportunities.
"He didn't get a lot of touches," Lewis admitted. "The kids came out early and didn't look for him. Late in the game they started looking for him."
Reno used Brandon Peterson and J.J. Mulligan in the key area, and they managed to bump him around quite a bit without getting into any foul trouble, and often discouraged Olson's teammates from looking inside.
"He (Olson) is going to be a special player," Reno coach Eric Swain said. "He is a special player. We had a couple of big, strong kids in there to put a body on him.
"This is the first game we got up and didn't play tentatively. We played to win and not to lose. We got the lead an expanded on it."
Swain was talking about two stages of the game, both in the second half.
The first was early in the third period when the Huskies went on an 8-2 run, led by Jeremy Lattin's six points, to snap a 25-all tie and take a 34-27 lead with 4:52 left in the quarter.
The second key stretch came at the outset of the fourth quarter. Down 40-38, Douglas missed its first four shots of the quarter, and Reno went on the aforementioned 7-0 run to take a 47-38 lead with 2:51 left in the game. Jeanness scored on a drive, Lattin knocked down two foul shots and Jeanness came back with a three-pointer to complete the surge.
Olson broke the drought with a bucket from the paint to make it 47-40, but Jeanness drained a triple, boosting the lead to 50-40. Lights out. This party was over.
"Chris (Honer) made a couple of good hustle plays (at the start of the quarter)," said Lewis, noting that the Tigers had four chances to tie the game. "Eric had a nice look, too. We just couldn't finish; couldn't get the ball to go down."
Reno 54, Douglas girls 40
Douglas turned the ball over 22 times and fell victim to two big surges by Reno in the second half en route to its first Sierra League loss after three straight wins.
Carson and Reno are tied for first at 4-0, and Douglas is a step behind at 3-1.
"They're good," Douglas coach Werner Christen said, referring to Reno. "I think they're the best team in the north right now.
"We can't get it back. We have to move on to Wooster (Friday on the road). That will be a big game. I knew that if they got too many second or third chances we'd be in for a long night. I think they wore us down (in the second half)."
The first half featured four ties and physical play which went unchecked by the officiating crew.
The Huskies took control of the game after Brittany Puzey picked up her third foul with 4:23 left in the half and Douglas holding a slim 19-18 lead.
For the next eight-plus minutes, which spanned the end of the first quarter and half of the second, Reno went on a 18-6 run to take a 36-25 lead. And, it wasn't just one person doing the damage. Kaylan King (20 points) knocked down two of her six three-pointers, and Michown Rich scored twice as did MacKenzie Butler and Cory Feest.
King hit two more treys in the third quarter, but Douglas refused to quit. A nice 9-4 run, led by Julie Gingrich's three-pointer, helped the Tigers cut the lead to 46-40 with 2:38 left in the game.
During that time, Douglas was playing more man-to-man defense, and that helped whittle the lead down. Erin Brinkmeyer did a solid job defending King.
"We haven't been playing very good man defense, which is why I didn't use it sooner," Christen said. "I knew we'd battle back.
"It's not like we didn't know what kind of player she (King) is. We spent a lot of time in practice working on rotating out to her."
According to Craig Campbell, King has connected on 16 three-pointers in her last three games.
"She has settled down lately," Campbell said. "She works so hard on her game. She's a gym rat like Erin (Brinkmeyer)."
Reno gathered itself and went on an 8-0 run to end the game, as Douglas was unable to muster any offense, especially with Puzey and Gingrich on the bench.
Gingrich, playing with a slight concussion, finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots before fouling out.
"I'm proud of Julie's effort," Christen said. "I thought Colleen Carlson played well (seven rebounds). I knew we'd battle back."
