Coming off a tough overtime loss at Incline the night before, the Yerington High boys basketball team had good reason to be concerned when it took the court at home against Sparks Saturday afternoon.
Even more so when the Sparks Railroaders, battling for their playoff lives, jumped out to an 8-0 first quarter lead. The Lions recovered, however, and dialed up D for defense in the second half on their way to a 34-25 Northern 3A regular-season ending victory against Sparks.
Yerington (11-5, 21-6) outscored Sparks 22-9 in the final two periods to rally for a win that clinched second-place in the league and a first-round berth in the Northern 3A Regional Tournament this coming week in Dayton.
"It was a total team effort," said Yerington coach Daron Wildermuth, whose squad dropped a 57-55 overtime decision at Incline on Friday. "We were in a very hard-fought contest last night, and Sparks came out ready to play today. They needed this game to make the playoffs and they came out after us from the start."
Wildermuth still wasn't overly concerned when the Lions didn't score in the first quarter. After all, the score could have been much worse.
"I was glad it wasn't double digits," he said. "We were a little tight after last night. We were getting good looks and good shots, they just weren't falling for us."
Sparks (7-9, 8-15) saw its lead cut to 16-12 at halftime, then Wildermuth called on his team's defense in the locker room at intermission.
"Our defense, all the way around, turned it up," Wildermuth said. "We decided at halftime that we needed to create some offense with our defense, and that's what happened."
Ryan Rife scored six of his game-high 10 points in the third quarter to lead a 12-2 run that put the Lions ahead to stay. Dylan Johnson also scored four points and Jeremy Means two in the period as Yerington surged to a 24-18 lead.
Mikey Burt also helped ignite the comeback, as the senior guard produced most of his five steals and five assists in the third period.
"He's our little firecracker," Wildermuth said of Burt. "He makes things happen out there."
Cory Olsen scored eight points and 6-foot-8 Curtis Rusin had six. They had three points between them after halftime.
Yerington returns to action Friday with a 4:40 p.m. regional tournament semifinal game at Dayton.
