Vandals hold No. 3 playoff seed entering final weekend

Eureka split their games last weekend at Wells and Jackpot, leaving themselves as coach Fred Minoletti said, “In a solid position for the No. 3 seed, I believe, into the regional playoffs,” Feb. 21-23 in Reno.

The 61-56 win at Wells was nice, he said, but the 39-25 loss at Jackpot, the league leader, the night after snapped the Vandals five-game win streak.

“The Wells game was close,” Minoletti said, “as was the Jackpot game, which was a low scoring game, but we were able to hang with them. But near the end of the fourth quarter, Jackpot was beginning to pull away.”

In the Wells game, Gage Hayward had 15 points in the fourth quarter to help the Vandals hold off the Leopards.

“Jackpot (17-5, 8-0), is really patient on offense,” Minoletti said, “They really work the ball around before taking a shot or going inside with a drive, they make you work on defense.

Eureka (5-4, 10-10) hosts McDermitt (3-20, 2-6) on Friday to close out the league season.

Minoletti said he thinks that Eureka will hold on to the No. 3 seed because it was reported some of the Owyhee players were disciplined for violating team rules and maybe not be able to play for a time. The Braves are scheduled to play Jackpot themselves on Friday. He said, [Owyhee] did not play last weekend, and may not have a game this week as well.”

As the regular season comes to an end, the playoff scenarios appear to have Jackpot, Wells, Eureka and Owyhee, pending disciplinary action, as the four East League seeds to the regional tournament Feb. 21-23 in Reno.

From the West League, the leaders appear to be Sierra Lutheran (17-5), Sage Ridge (8-8), Whittell (16-2) and Virginia City (7-10) or Pyramid Lake (4-11). The Muckers and Lakers are tied for the No. 4 spot. Virginia City played Whittell Feb. 12 and at Pyramid Lake Feb. 15.

The VC-Pyramid Lake game could decide the outcome for the final playoff spot.