Huskies continue marathon run, beat Delta
EDWARDS — Battle Mountain boys basketball runs deep.
Nine players deep, to be specific and that’s a good thing right now.
The Huskies (8-7 overall and 5-4 in the Slope) won their second game in as many days, knocking off Delta, 63-50, on Friday night in Edwards.
And since Battle Mountain is off to face Glenwood Springs out west today, depth is sorely needed.
“I just hope it may be enough,” Huskies coach Philip Tronsrue said. “Three games in three days is tough. What is good is we have guys to contribute every quarter. It’s not one guy who has two or three 3s and we don’t hear from him again. We need to be balanced not just with our bigs and our guards, but from quarter to quarter.”
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Said nice variety was on display on Friday. There was no one person upon whom the visiting Panthers could focus. The Huskies had four in double-digits on Friday night — Devin Huffman (13), Abdoulaye Dath (12) and both Chase Keep and Creek Kamby with 11.
“Creek came off the bench and played great,” Keep said. “We’re playing as a team. That many guys in double-digits is a good team win.”
And that spelled revenge for Battle Mountain after a tough 52-50 loss at Delta back in December.
The Huskies jumped out to a 17-11 first-quarter lead with Dath capping the frame with a trey. During that first quarter, Keep was starting to head up with mid-range jumpers.
Ending a quarter with a 3-pointer seemed to be theme of the night as Miles Joersz did so at halftime. Huffman had an excellent stretch of play inside during the third.
Battle Mountain pulled away in the fourth quarter.
And that sets up a big one against Cameron Horning and the Demons today.
“We’re going to have to play well as a team,” Keep said. “We’re going to have to have strong help-side defense and play hard.”
Girls lose heartbreaker
It’s getting really frustrating for the Battle Mountain girls, but that is a sign of progress.
The Huskies (4-10 overall and 2-7 in the Slope) dropped a heartbreaker to Delta, 60-59 on a layup by the Panthers by Emily Nortnik with 3.4 seconds to go on Friday night in Edwards.
The Huskies led 56-52 with 1:24 left in the game and 58-54 with 47.6 ticks remaining.
Delta’s Jenna Sutlif hit a free throw with 33 ticks to go and teammate Lily Lockhart got the putback when Sutlif missed her second.
Up 58-57, Battle Mountain’s Monique Stevens went 1-for-2 from the line as did Lockhart with 11.6 seconds left.
Battle Mountain’s Steffania Trujillo was not as fortunate missing the front end of a 1-and-1, and Delta replied with Nortnik’s bucket in the final seconds. As with all 1-point games, there are about a 1,000 different permutations, so by no means, was this on Trujillo.
It’s a team game and the Huskies win and lose as such. What’s tough for the Huskies is that this isn’t the “same old Battle Mountain girls basketball.” The Huskies aren’t losing, 70-20, every night, which might be easier to absorb.
Battle Mountain’s in games. The Huskies just need to get over the hump.
“We’re competitive now,” the Huskies Jessica Sullivan said. “I can’t remember the last time Battle Mountain basketball was competitive. We working hard , but right now we don’t know how to win. It’s progress, I guess. It’s just a learning process.”
Huskies coach Paul Stephens echoed those sentiments in his postgame remarks.
The good news for the ladies is that they don’t have time to dwell on Friday night’s heartbreaker. Both Huskies teams are at Glenwood today.
Nortnik led Delta (7-8, 4-6) with 19, while Monique Stevens had 18 points for the Huskies.
