Manogue ends Douglas High boys' basketball team's playoff hopes

While the bigger goals may have slipped away Friday night, the Douglas High boys' basketball team is keeping its main goal to finish out the last week of the regular season -- winning out.

Manogue put an end to any remaining playoff hopes the Tigers had, taking an 84-66 win in Reno to remain unbeaten in Sierra League play. Douglas was facing the prospect of having to win the remaining three games on its schedule coming into the night and needing Damonte Ranch to lose at least twice.

"One big thing we talked about after the game was asking the seniors what kind of footprint they wanted to leave on this program and this season," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "How do they want the juniors talking about them, how do they want the sophomores talking about them?

"Once you lose your goals, you have to reset. Right now our goal is to leave 2-0. We know the kids have heart. We're putting this next week on our seniors and asking them to leave their mark on this program."

As it was, Douglas made it look early on as though it might have a shot at being the first Northern Nevada team to top the Miners this season.

The Tigers stuck with Manogue through the first quarter and took a brief lead at 24-23 with just over six minutes remaining in the first half.

"Overall, we came in knowing we could give them some matchup problems," Thacker said. "It doesn't matter what combination we put on the floor, we can create opportunities with our different pairings of big guys and whatever three guards.

"We tried to use that to our advantage, running the ball inside by either driving the ball and kicking it to our big guys or getting it to the big guys and letting them score. We tried to establish that early and had some success with it."

Indeed, 19 of the Tigers' 39 first-half points came from their four post players, but a 10-2 Manogue run through the middle of the quarter set the Miners back out front. Douglas outscored Manogue 7-6 over the final two minutes of the half to go in to the locker rooms trailing 43-39.

That momentum disappeared to start the third quarter as the Miners forced two turnovers and came up with a stop on Douglas' third possession of the half while creating a 9-2 run.

After the teams traded baskets on their next three trips down the floor combined, Manogue pulled off a 10-0 run on its way to taking a 69-51 lead into the fourth.

"We came out in the second half and we weren't getting the ball inside," Thacker said. "We had some turnovers and Manogue converted those into points. It blew up real quick. They are a high-caliber team.

"Even at 12, 13 points, I still think we had a chance, but once they got up around 19, 20, it started slipping away a bit."

What followed was an off fourth quarter during which the Tigers' didn't surrender a single field goal. Manogue converted 15-of-22 free throw shots from the line in the period to keep its lead intact.

A 9-0 run from Douglas in the fourth cut the deficit back down to 11 with four minutes remaining but the Tigers wouldn't get any closer.

Bobby Hunter led Manogue with 25 points while Sutter Childs had 18 and Pat John had 11.

James McLaughlin led Douglas with 13, Nick Hales had 12, Tim Rudnick had 11, Garrett Getty had eight, Parker Robertson had seven, Austin Neddenriep had four, Luis Pina-Duarte had three and Cale Pete, Tyler Hoelzen and Jorey Scott had two each in the loss.

Douglas travels to South Tahoe on Tuesday before the regular-season finale at home against Carson on Friday.