Vandals fall at home to Panthers

The Eureka County High boys basketball team couldn’t do what they did two weeks ago.

In a rematch from the Comstock Classic earlier in the month, the Vandals fell at home to Pahranagat Valley High 58-39, evening the season series between the two schools. The Vandals notched a 10-point win against the Panthers in their first meeting.

The Panthers had balanced scoring from their starting lineup, which was a great advantage, noted coach Mike Strong. The win snapped the boys nine game losing streak. “A much needed win for us,” Strong said.

Tabor Maxwell had four 3-pointers, three in the second half, to lead the team with 13 points. Wade Leavitt had eight points, Shawn Wadsworth six, and the forwards all did well, also. Paden Higbee and Jake Carter both had nine points, and Christian Higbee scored eight coming in off the bench.

Commenting on the balance Strong said, “I think that’s what you’ll see out of this team. There won’t be one young man who will go for 20 plus every night. It’s going to be a team effort with several kids having to perform well.”

PVHS and Eureka played fairly even the first quarter with the Panthers leading 16-14, but in the middles quarters, Alamo was running well, playing good defense, and keeping up their solid work with the inside game, all which resulted in outscoring the Vandals 31-11, who missed several open close in baskets.

Eureka County coach Elmer Porter said they were without Trevor Merritt, their leading scorer, which was definitely a factor. “One of our problems is scoring. We are not really consistent in scoring. We needed a couple of other kids to step up and do that, but Alamo played a real tough man-to-man defense, much better than the last time we played them. They really worked a lot better and we had a hard time penetrating that.”

Assistant Panther coach Ken Higbee said, “It was important to see how we have improved since we’ve had some back-to-back practices, and we saw the results when our kids do the little things we ask.”

Strong added, “It was nice to see us be able to execute out on the floor some of the things we’ve been working on in practice. We were more effective against them this time as opposed to the last time.”

Paul Padilla led the Vandals in scoring with eight points.

Eureka County (4-8) will open its conference schedule on Jan. 10 at home against Carlin.