CLASS 2A: Hills’ “sick” play powers Mustangs past Stars

Needles sophomore Michael Hills was feeling ill before Friday’s Class 2A Boys Southern Region Tournament at Desert Oasis.

By the time the second half of the Mustangs’ semifinal game was over, Agassi Prep felt a little sick of Hills.

Hills led all scorers with 37 points, shifted Needles transition game into overdrive in the second half, and led the third-seeded Mustangs to a 92-69 victory over the second-seeded Stars.

“Agassi Prep is a well coached, good, athletic team. And Michael Hills just took over,” Needles coach Jeff Plank said of his 5-foot-9 guard. “And he wasn’t 100 percent today; that’s the funny thing. But when he’s on, that means his teammates are on.”

Needles will play in the tournament championship game today at 5 p.m. at Desert Oasis against Lincoln County, which defeated The Meadows 68-52 in Friday’s other semifinal. With the victories, both teams also qualified for next week’s state tournament in Reno.

Agassi Prep led Needles 33-32 early in the second half before the Mustangs’ fast break created havoc for the Stars.

Hills drained a 3-pointer, then hit a fast-break basket to lead a 15-4 run that put Needles up 47-37 with 3:51 left in the third period.

After Agassi trimmed the deficit to six, Hills scored the Mustangs’ final 14 points of the third period to push the lead to 64-54. 

“We just had a really good second half,” Hills said. “They were tired and we just kept pushing the ball. When we started pulling ahead, they started getting mad at each other.

“Making it to state was a really big deal for us. I guess we just wanted it more.”

Anthony Ramos added 21 points, and Ryan Andrews contributed 14 for Needles.

Quincy Brown led Agassi Prep with 26 points, and Dimitri Amos had 24 points for the Stars.

Lincoln County 68, The Meadows 52 — The duo of Eric Rippetoe and Dantley Walker was too much for the Mustangs, and the post-perimeter duo combined to score 51 points for Lincoln County.

Rippetoe scored 29 points to spark the Lynx in the paint, and Walker added 23 points from outside.

The Meadows led 11-10 after the first quarter, but Walker hit a 3-pointer to spark a 19-9 run that put Lincoln County in control.

Walker connected on back-to-back 3-pointers in the final minute of the third quarter to push the Lynx ahead 51-30. Rippetoe scored three-straight baskets inside to give Lincoln County its largest lead, 62-38, with 3:55 left in the game.

Garrett Gosse scored 23 and Austin Brown added 15 for the Mustangs.

GIRLS

Needles 74, West Wendover 63 — The Mustangs went into the semifinals trying to slow down the Wolverines’ one-woman scoring machine, Danika Sharp.

When that didn’t pan out, Needles simply outscored her.

Alex Chandler scored 24 points to spark the undefeated Mustangs, who overcame a key injury, foul trouble and a 54-point outburst from Sharp.

“We didn’t want her to score,” Chandler said. “But we knew every time they scored, we had to score. Most of our girls can pick it up whenever they need to. We just created whatever we could.”

Danielle Ramos hit five-straight 3-pointers on the way to scoring 15 points for Needles, and Miranda Bracket added 12 points.

Needles (26-0) will play Lincoln County at 3:20 p.m. for the tournament championship at Desert Oasis. Both teams also clinched state berths.

The Mustangs saw starting forward Gena Chavira go down in the second half with a knee injury, but heated up from outside to take control of the game with back-to-back 3-pointers from Ramos and Chandler that gave Needles a 46-28 lead with 3:50 left in the third.

Chandler later scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to give the Mustangs their largest lead, 64-39, with 6:42 left.

But Needles had two players foul out in the period, and Sharp made it interesting by scoring 20 points in the quarter, and West Wendover (17-11) cut the lead to eight, but got no closer.

”I guess we had some regional jitters,” Chandler said. “We came back in the second half and played like we were supposed to. But it was way closer than we wanted.”

Sharp, a senior, finished her career with 2,803 points, which many believe to be the state career scoring record for girls basketball.

Lincoln County 55, White Pine 32 — The Lynx used full-court pressure defense to force 28 turnovers on the way to powering No. 3-seed Lincoln County to victory.

Marissa Smerek had 13 points, and Kori Gloeckner and Mary Culverwell scored 11 apiece for the Lynx (20-7).

The Lynx held the Bobcats to 24 percent shooting, and Lincoln County coach Henry Frehner said his team’s full-court press helped them get off to a fast start.

“Last time we played them, we got in a hole. But this time we got them down and our defense just made it really hard for them to come back,” Frehner said. “When they play hard like they did today, the (press) gives everyone a lot of trouble.”

Lincoln County seized control in the second quarter, sparked by freshman Nicole Florence. Florence had a steal and a layup, then hit a 3-pointer to start a 10-2 run that put the Lynx up 22-10 with 3:05 left before halftime.

Jordan Ashby scored 13 to lead White Pine (22-5).