The Douglas High boys' basketball team was able to deploy its defensive gameplan with a high grade of efficency against Manogue Friday night - so much so that the sharp-shooting Miners managed only four 3-pointers in the game.
The problem with a hyper talented team like Manogue - which has been ranked No. 1 in the Sierra Nevada Sports Media Poll for the bulk of the season - is that even exhibiting success against them for large portions of the game isn't enough.
So it was in Minden Friday, as a 9-2 run early in the second quarter and a 9-1 run down the stretch made all the difference as the Miners beat Douglas 70-53.
"I thought we hung around for the first half," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "We were making stops and they only had three 3-pointers in the first two quarters.
"They're a good team, though, and you just can't let them increase a lead on you, because you are going to have a tough time getting it back."
The two teams traded the lead four times early on and Douglas' Jeremy Burkhart put the Tigers up 17-15 with a 3-pointer with less than a minute left in the first quarter.
A 3-pointer from Brennan Hogan, though, put the Miners back up and Manogue took a 20-17 into the second quarter.
The Miners outscored Douglas 14-2 following Burkhart's 3-pointer and the Tigers didn't get much closer from that point on. But they also didn't get much further away.
"We let them increase that lead and they did a good job of clock control in the second half and made sure they were building on the lead they already had," Thacker said. "We were playing hard but we let up a bit on our assignments.
"When you're playing a team like that, you have to play your assignments and you have to do things right. We slipped up and they were there to take advantage."
The Miners didn't pull any more than 13 points ahead until the last minute of the game - Manogue's final seven points came from the free throw line - but the Tigers couldn't cut the deficit any closer than seven points either.
One key was Manogue's interior defense, which focused on double- and even triple-teaming Douglas' post players, who still managed a combined 28 points in the game.
"We outsize them and they know that," Thacker said. "They did a really good job compensating. They doubled and tripled from the back side. That set us out of rhythm and we just didn't have it inside tonight."
Bobby Hunter led the Miners with 30 points, going 12-of-14 from the free throw line, and Steven Carlson, Sutter Childs and Hogan each had six points.
Austin Neddenriep led the Tigers with 14 points, Jorey Scott and Jeremy Burkhart each had seven, Hunter Myers had six, Chris Downs, Matt Thomas and Kameron VanWinkle each had four, Brett Anderson had three, Nick Maestretti and Garrett Getty each had two and Luis Pina-Duarte and Theo Denson each had one as Douglas had every player on its roster put points on the board for the second-consecutive game.
The Tigers host South Tahoe Tuesday at 7 p.m. and travel to Carson Friday at 7 p.m. in the regular season finale.
