Vandals Win Three at Wells Tourney

The Eureka boys had only one loss in their four games at the Wells Rural Electric Classic last weekend.

The first game Thursday was against Round Mountain and a 57-19 win. “Round Mountain is down quite a bit this year, don’t really have too much,” said Vandal coach Fred Minoletti. Sophomore Chase Green was the leading scorer for the Vandals with 18 points.

Southern league powerhouse Pahranagat Valley was the first game Friday at Wells and the Panthers handed the Vandals a 64-34 loss. “Tough to match up with them size wise,” Minoletti said. “It seemed like they were already in pretty good basketball shape.” Vinnie Padilla was the leader scorer for Eureka with 11 points.

The Vandals won both of the next games, a 67-52 win over Tonopah and beating Beaver Dam 59-27.

The boys broke open a close game, 43-41 after three periods, outscoring the Muckers 24-17 in the fourth quarter. “Tonopah is a scrappy team that plays hard and we had not played very well defensively those first three quarters.” Minoletti said. Green again led the Vandals with 22 points and he came back the next day with another 22 point performance against Beaver Dam.

“Of the three games we won at Wells, Tonopah was definitely our best one, he said.

Like most coaches say after the season begins, Minoletti is no different, noting that the team has quite a bit to work on in order to move on successfully. “We were a bit sloppy at the opening, which is common at the beginning of the season. If we want to play with the Alamo’s, Whittell’s, Mineral County’s and such, we have to fix a lot of fundamental stuff, our passing in particular. Back to the fundamentals in doing the little things, boxing out, ball movement, etc. Defensively we have to get better. At times we did OK, and not at other times.”

This week, through Saturday, Eureka (3-1) is at the Whittell tournament. They faced Pyramid Lake Thursday and will now play Mammoth Lake, Calif, North Tahoe and the Hug JVs.