The Douglas High boys' basketball team picked up its first win of the season in dramatic fashion Friday evening as CJ Marcotte made a driving lay-up at the buzzer to give the Tigers a 68-67 win in the consolation bracket of the Wild West Shootout at Reno High School.
Douglas trailed by as many as 10 points late in the game, but rallied with an impressive 30-point fourth quarter for the win.
The Tigers overcame a slow start, getting outscored 14-4 in the first quarter, and narrowed the gap to 28-25 heading into the locker room for halftime.
Michael Whalin led Douglas with 16 points and a 3-pointer while Tim Rudnick had 13 points and Marcotte finished with 10 and a 3-pointer.
The Tigers' trend of balanced scoring continued as nine players put points on the board. Parker Robertson finished with eight points, Nick Hales, Austin Neddenriep and Cale Pete each had six, Jorey Scott scored two and Garrett Getty finished with one.
In the consolation final, Douglas fell 79-50 against Manogue.
Neddenriep and Hales led the team with 10 points each while Rudnick had seven and Whalin had six.
Rudnick and Marcotte each had 3-pointers in the game.
The Miners built a 44-29 lead through the first half and appeared to be on pace to eclipse the 100-point mark for the third time in as many games this season, but Douglas clamped down on defense and held Manogue to 35 points in the second half, including 11 in the fourth.
Douglas hosted McQueen Tuesday night and will open the eighth annual Carson Valley Classic at 6 p.m. Thursday night against Dayton.
In other first-round games Thursday, Manogue takes on Fernley at 3 p.m., North Valleys faces Merced at 4:30 p.m. and Faith Lutheran takes on Churchill County at 7:30 p.m.
Second-round games kick off at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon and the final round begins at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
Douglas completed its first weekend of play with a 2-1 record, falling 51-28 to Whitney and beating El Dorado 36-25 at the Whitney Invitational in California. Douglas beat Roseville 38-29 in the first round of the tournament.
Jessica Waggoner scored 13 points in the loss to Whitney.
"They were a big, quick, experienced team," Douglas coach Werner Christen said. "They played better than us and they were well-coached. "They were a tough matchup, they'd just been playing together for a while."
Douglas bounced back with the win over El Dorado, getting 17 points from Waggoner.
"El Dorado was a pretty good squad," Christen said. "We played really well. They tried to pressure us and we did a good job fighting through it."
Waggoner and guard Ally Freitas were named to the all-tournament team for Douglas.
Douglas was without the services of Dany Heidt, who was on a soccer recruiting trip over the weekend.
The Tigers will take on Casa Robles in the first round of the High Sierra Classic in Reno Thursday.
