Battling through a five-game skid and a night away from their biggest game of the season so far, the Douglas boys' basketball team needed to get well in a hurry.
Get well they did, in a big way.
Douglas picked up its first league win of the season, taking a 93-60 win over Wooster in Reno, setting up tonight's matchup with Galena.
"This was a good one," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "Just for our camaraderie and our confidence, just considering all the things that have happened to the team recently.
"We had a good week of practice and we expected to come out well tonight. We want to come out well tomorrow. Galena won't be the same type of game, but we want to bring the same type of energy and the same type of defensive effort out that we had tonight."
All nine Douglas players who played in the game put points on the board with four players finishing in double-figures.
"Our guys shared the ball well," Thacker said. "That's how we're going to score, when we're sharing the ball. Every guy out there tonight shared it and hit the open guy. When we do that, good things are going to happen."
Senior Nick Hales led the charge with 23 points, including a 13-of-18 performance at the free-throw line, Cale Pete and Tim Rudnick each scored 17 and Tyler Hoelzen posted a career-best 14 points.
Garrett Getty added seven, Jorey Scott had five, Parker Robertson and Austin Neddenriep each had four and Chris Downs added two to round out the scoring.
Hales scored eight of the Tigers' first 12 points in the game as Douglas (4-12 overall, 1-2 Sierra League) built a slim lead through the first four minutes of the game. The Tigers put together a 12-2 run to stretch its lead to 22-11.
Hoelzen hit a pair of 3-pointers to open the second quarter to further extend the lead. Scott hit a lay-up and a free-throw, Hales had a basket and Hoelzen hit the front-end of a one-and-one to complete another 12-2 run, this time working the score to 34-16.
The Tigers closed out the first half on a 12-0 run, highlighted by a 3-pointer from Rudnick and five points from Pete, to push the score to 50-23.
Hales got Douglas going again in the second half, scoring the Tigers' first five points, followed by baskets from Rudnick, Scott, Hoelzen and Pete, and a string of four consecutive made free throws from Robertson and Hales to work the score to 67-32.
Getty converted a conventional three-point play and followed that with a basket at the buzzer give Douglas a 72-34 lead headed into the fourth quarter.
Douglas twice led by 40 in the fourth quarter, the first coming on a basket from Pete 10 seconds in to push the score to 74-34, and the second at the 3:10 mark when Neddenriep scored a basket to make it 86-46.
Wooster closed with a late rally over the final 2:35, going on a 9-1 run to close the gap slightly.
