Shannon Litz/Nevada AppealVirginia City's Justin Avignone shoots against the Beatty Hornets on Friday at Arbor View High School in Las Vegas. The Muckers won 59-44.
LAS VEGAS - Virginia City found itself in a quick 7-0 hole against Beatty in the semifinals of the NIAA 1A State Championships Friday afternoon.
Coach Hector Bucchanieri called a timeout to settle down the Mucker boys.
"My voice went up," Bucchanieri admitted. "They know when I'm mad. Basically I told them that I didn't know what was going on and neither did they."
The brief chat helped. Virginia City went on to grab an 11-point lead after the first quarter en route to a 59-44 victory at Arbor View High School.
The Muckers advanced to the state title game against Pahranagat Valley at 7:40 p.m. today at the Orleans Arena.
"At times I felt we played well, but at times I didn't feel we played well," Bucchanieri said. "Beatty was a good team. They came at us hard with a full-court press. They never quit.
"At times I thought we were playing not to lose. I think we may have been looking past them a little bit and to (today) (once we got the lead to 20). I put three really young guys in and we made some mistakes and they got a few baskets at the end."
Zach Shell led all scorers with 22. He knocked down two 3-pointers in the first quarter and added six points in the second quarter to give the Muckers a 30-20 lead at the break. VC outscored Beatty 14-7 in the third quarter to build the lead to 44-27.
Ryan Conners scored 15 points and did a nice job on the boards, according to Bucchanieri. Adam Young scored 10 and Ethan Huffman added nine.
Bucchanieri said he had no preference of who he would playing today's championship game.
"Whoever gets there, you know they are going to be tough," Bucchanieri said.
