The Sierra Lutheran High School girls' basketball team improved to 2-1 on the year, coming back to defeat Excel Christian in the third-place game of the Gerlach Invitational over the weekend.
"It was a good weekend for us, we did very well," Sierra Lutheran coach Joe Radzviloqicz said. "One of our goals heading into the season was to get wins against teams we haven't been able to beat before and Excel Christian was one of those."
The Falcons opened the tournament with a loss to Austin, who went on to win the tournament.
"We were still very competitive and we'll be at Austin's tournament this weekend so hopefully we'll get another shot at them," Radzvilowicz said.
Radzvilowicz is entering his first year at the helm of the Falcons' basketball program. He moved to the area with his family last year from Connecticut.
"This is the highest level of basketball I've been able to coach, but my daughters and grew up playing and I've been coaching for about the last 12 years," he said. "This coaching spot opened up and I just wanted to see if I could help develop this young program."
Sierra Lutheran comes in with 11 players, including seven returnees, making for perhaps its deepest squad in the school's short history.
"We're very balanced all the way across the board," Radzvilowicz said. "We have three seniors, three juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen.
"Two of the seniors have been playing here since the program started, so they bring us a lot of experience. This team has a lot of talent and I think they can do quite well and hopefully we'll be able to compete with anyone."
Sierra Lutheran's two returning seniors, center Shaina Renner and guard Heather Morales, will be the team's captains and senior transfer Amanda Gangwish will start at point guard.
"Amanda has played in a larger program and has some experience in that large-school atmosphere," Radzvilowicz said. "She'll be a big help to us this year."
Juniors Kate Darby (forward/guard). Ariel Votipka (forward) and Jackie Latragna (forward) round out a strong returning corps in the upper grade levels for the Falcons.
Sophomore forward Cameo Lommori, who had an all-league season in volleyball, is expected to make big contributions for Sierra Lutheran, as are sophomore guards Kylie Estill and Tori Swearingen.
Freshmen Teslah Callahan and Alexis Radzvilowicz will be the Falcons' build-around players for the future.
"We're just hoping to be competitive in league," coach Radzvilowicz said. "In the past we've been playing against some very developed program, but we are bringing a lot of individual talent to the table and they've got a lot of experience against those older programs.
"It should be fun to watch."
Sierra Lutheran will primarily run an aggressive zone defense and will look to use its tall frontcourt to its best advantage in a half-court offense.
"We're just trying to slow the game down a bit for now," Radzvilowicz said. "As the season goes on, we'll start pushing the ball up more aggressively, but for now we're just trying to get the girls to understand the motion of the offense."
Sierra Lutheran travels to Austin for a tournament this weekend and will play at Excel Christian on Dec. 12.
COLEVILLE GIRLS
The Lady Wolves took two out of three games in the Eureka High Desert Shooutout Tournament over the weekend.
Coleville lost the opening game 57-37 to the hosting Eureka Vandals.
Eureka held the Wolves to just 21 percent from the field and dominated the boards.
Coleville junior Amara Rowley led the Lady Wolves with 18 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and five steals.
Sophomore Skyler Isbell scored five points and had five rebounds. Senior Kayla Johnson added six points and junior Kimberly Torley grabbed 11 rebounds.
The Lady Wolves rebounded Saturday morning, defeating the McDermitt Bulldogs by a final score of 49-36. Rowley scored a season-high 23 points and had 10 rebounds and 10 steals for a triple-double.
Johnson added 12 points and Torley scored 11 points and had nine rebounds.
Coleville picked up its second victory of the day with a 42-31 win over the White Pine junior varsity.
Rowley continued her dominating play with 18 points, 13 rebounds and eight steals. Torley scored nine points and had nine rebounds and Johnson had seven points and 10 rebounds.
Junior Sarah Holden came off the bench to add four points and grab four rebounds. Rowley, Johnson and Torley were named the the all-tournament team.
"I am very encouraged by the way we are playing," Coleville coach Will Sandy said. "Amara is playing very well and Kayla and Kimberly have added two additional scoring options that will make it harder for teams to concentrate on Amara.
"The younger girls have come a long way in a short time, but we need to get much better defensively and have to improve our rebounding."
Coleville (3-2) faces a stiff test this week, playing five games with one in Hawthorne and four in the Comstock Classic in Virginia City.
COLEVILLE BOYS
Coleville won all three of its games at the Eureka High Desert Shootout over the weekend.
The Wolves opened with a 38-29 victory over the White Pine junior varsity. Trevor Anderson led the way with 15 points, including a 5-of-6 performance from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
Jason Peters scored nine points in the game as well.
Coleville shut down Eureka 39-28 with 13 points from Peters and eight points from Marco Barajas.
The Wolves held the Vandals to just one field goal in the first quarter and just one field goal in the fourth.
Coleville then shut down a much-larger McDermitt team 50-43, despite trailing 20-19 at the half.
Erik Stevens hit four 3-pointers in the second half to finish with 13 points. Anderson also had 13 and Barajas had 10 points to go with 14 rebounds.
Stevens, Anderson and Barajas were all named to the all-tournament team. Coleville is now 4-1 on the year.
