Boulder City climbs out of first hole, but stays put in second against Lowry

RENO — Boulder City’s girls basketball team fought off a slow start to take a halftime lead over Lowry on Saturday.

The Eagles couldn’t dig themselves out of a second hole.

Boulder City made just one second-half field goal, and the Buckaroos defeated the Eagles 44-34 in the Division I-A state championship game at Lawlor Events Center.

“The third quarter we stumbled again,” Boulder City coach Paul Dosch said. “We came out of the locker room a little flat. After that, we really couldn’t get back to where we needed to get to unfortunately.”

Lowry (21-9) led 15-4 early in the second quarter, but Katlyn Daly’s driving layup with 2:02 left in the first half cut the Lowry lead to 19-18. Boulder City (24-5) added four free throws before the half to take a 22-20 lead, but little did Bosch and the Eagles know that they wouldn’t make another field goal for 13 minutes, 23 seconds.

Daly’s lefty layup with 4:39 left in the game finally ended the drought, cutting the Lowry lead to 32-27.

But Boulder City wouldn’t make another shot from the field, finishing 1-for-21 (4.8 percent) in the second half. The Eagles were especially bad from the perimeter, going 0-for-14 on 3-pointers in the game.

Even so, Boulder City still had a shot down the stretch. Lowry led 38-32 in the final two minutes when the Eagles began to foul. The Buckaroos missed the front end of three one-and-one opportunities, but Boulder City could not capitalize.

“We had our chances,” Dosch said. “We missed a few shots. Playing in this big arena, it’s just a different thing. It’s not one of our comfortable high school gyms.”

The Eagles turned the ball over eight times in the first quarter, helping Lowry take the lead. But Boulder City handled the press well in the second quarter and didn’t turn the ball over the rest of the half.

Boulder City also got forward Whitney Barlow going in the second quarter when she scored 10 of her team-high 13 points. But Barlow got just one field-goal attempt in the third quarter as Lowry retook the lead.

“We just weren’t running our motion very well,” Dosch said. “They took us out of what we wanted to do. You’ve got to give Lowry credit. We wanted to be the team that took them out of what they wanted to do, and they beat us to the punch.”

Alyssa Dendary had 18 points and hit three 3-pointers to lead Lowry, which won its first state title since 2010.

Barlow had 15 rebounds, and Daly scored seven for the Eagles.

“I love this basketball team,” Dosch said. “It truly does hurt.”

Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at 702-380-4587 or dseiters@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DamonSeiters on Twitter.