Boys' Basketball: Tigers start season 0-3 at Wild West

The Douglas boys' basketball team opened its season 0-3 at the Wild West Shootout in Reno last week.

The Tigers had a late comeback fall short against Fairfield to open the year but bounced back with a pair of close games to close out the tournament.

Douglas trailed by just eight points to Oakland late in the game, but the Tigers began fouling to try to make up the deficit. Oakland ended up pulling away with a 72-57 win.

The next night, Douglas fell 77-76 in overtime against Vallejo, but had chances at the end of regulation and at the end of overtime to win the game.

"We were excited about the steps we took up the learning curve over the weekend," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "It was good. We knew we have a long way to go, but these guys made some big strides during that tournament.

"The kids worked hard. The first game, they were a little nervous but they settled down and played some good basketball in the following two."

The Tigers had stretches of strong play on defense, but Thacker said overall, that will be their biggest area of focus in the coming weeks.

"We did well at times," Thacker said. "We'd lock down and have all five guys guarding the ball. We had lapses other times. We gave up 43 in the first half against Vallejo."

The Tigers got a late stop against Vallejo and had a chance to win it at the end, but couldn't convert.

"We had some miscues, but those are things we can work on and fix," Thacker said.

Douglas will get its first chance to play at home this week in the Carson Valley Classic. They'll take on Lowry at 6 p.m. on Thursday. They'll play Pleasant Grove at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Faith Lutheran at 4 p.m. Saturday.

The Douglas junior varsity boys' basketball squad went 3-0 at the Donnelly Tournament over the weekend to stay unbeaten on the year.

The Tigers thumped Reno 93-45 in the opener, getting 27 points, five rebounds and five steals from James TenBroeck. Trevor Shaffer added 15 points and five rebounds. Nate Vonahsen had 12 points, Matt Wylie had 10 with five rebounds, Jake Tessman had nine points and 10 rebounds and Connor Hughes had five points and seven assists.

"James did a great job coming off the bench and dominating the inside play," Douglas coach Brian Mello said. "Defensively, we did an outstanding job of working together both in the full court and the half court."

Douglas beat Fernley 74-21 in the second game. Shaffer had 11 points, TenBroeck had 10 with three steals, Noah Thew had seven points and four assists, Vonahsen had six points and three steals, Wylie had nine points, Steven Werth had seven points and five steals, Jake Tessmann had 12 points, four assists and four steals, Hughes had eight points, three assists and three steals and Adrian Duenas had four points and four assists.

Douglas gave up just eight second-half points and dished out a season-high 24 assists.

The Tigers beat Hug 72-51 in the championship.

Tessmann had 20 points and hit four 3-pointers. Shaffer had 18 points, five rebounds and three assists. TenBroeck had 13 points, five rebounds, and five steals, Wylie had eight points and five tips and Hughes had seven assists, three steals and 12 tips.

"We set the tempo early, outscoring Hug 38-19 in the first half, primarily with great team defense," Mello said. "Connor and Adrian did a great job shutting down Hug's point guard and Nate and Jake did an outstanding job shutting down their main scorer, holding him to seven points with only one coming in the second half."

TenBroeck was named the tournament's MVP with 50 points, 11 rebounds and a 14-of-18 clip at the line.

"He did a great job coming off the bench and sparking the team both on offense and defense."