A third-quarter rally and solid defensive effort in the second half was nearly enough to erase a nightmare of a first quarter for the Douglas boys' basketball team at Reno Tuesday night.
Reno, however, was able to fend off the Tigers' charge to pick up a 79-61 win and effectively end Douglas' postseason hopes.
Across town, North Valleys took care of South Tahoe 92-65 to put the final nail in the coffin for the Tigers.
With the loss, Douglas became the first team in any of the eight major sports at the high school to not qualify for the regional playoffs in three years.
Douglas did well to even find its way back into the game Tuesday night after Reno came out and blasted the Tigers with a 24-8 first quarter.
The Huskies didn't even allow the Tigers to cross the halfcourt line through the first minute and 45 seconds. They shut Douglas out through the first three minutes of the game as the Tigers went 0-for-4 from the field early on.
In the meantime, Reno built up a 10-0 lead with 3-pointers from Roman Van Allen and Kyle Elliott leading the way.
Jared Trowbridge made a couple of impressive baskets for the Tigers and Nate Whalin and Keith Olson each added a basket but Reno put up runs of 7-0 and 5-0 to close out the quarter.
Douglas began to settle down in the second, getting solid defense from Mike Gransbery and Whalin and some solid play from Joe Nady inside. Nady scored seven of his nine points in the second quarter.
Reno entered the locker room for halftime leading 42-21 and quickly extended that to 51-27 in the third quarter before Douglas began to claw back into it.
The run started quietly enough, with a Jeff Nady basket followed by a Roger Carlson basket for the Huskies, but Trowbridge again scored and Gransbery followed with a 3-pointer. Olson put up another basket and Gransbery hit yet another 3-pointer to complete a 12-2 run with 1:53 remaining in the quarter.
The Tigers closed out the quarter with a 6-2 run to close the gap to 58-45.
Douglas again narrowed the lead early in the fourth with free throws from David Laird, and Gransbery, this time to nine points at 60-51, but J.J. Mulligan woke Reno up with a personal 5-0 run that put the Huskies out of reach for Douglas.
Olson finished the game with 17 points and Gransbery had 15. Trowbridge put up eight and Laird and Jeff Nady each finished with four.
Mulligan led Reno with 27 points.
Douglas (10-16, 5-8) takes on Wooster tonight at 7 p.m., but will not have a senior night as all of the players on its roster are juniors or sophomores.
FRESHMEN
Douglas finished on the short end of two incredible games over the last week.
On Saturday, the Tigers hung with first-place Hug until the Hawks were able to pull away with just 10 seconds left in the game for the 81-76 win.
"It was our best game all year, everyone played so hard," coach J.P. Albert said. "It was pretty awesome. We played with a lot of heart and the kids never gave up."
Tyler Hoelzen scored 30 points and hit eight 3-pointers and Cale Pete added 25 points and had nine rebounds.
Nick Hales scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as well.
On Tuesday, Reno prevailed 67-65 over the Tigers. Tim Rudnick scored 16 points, Pete added 12 and Lee Frediani scored 11.
Douglas fell back early in the game, but outscored the Huskies 48-32 in the second half to get back in it. The Tigers scored 26 points in a big third quarter.
n Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
