Tribe holds Cougars at bay

By MARTIN HARRIS - Sports Editor
Saturday January 12, 2008

ELKO - Early on it was a heavy dose of Taylor Altenburg and in the end her teammates came up with the big plays.

The result was Elko's girls basketball team picking up a huge win against Spanish Springs, 68-60, Friday night at Centennial Gym.

“I thought we played pretty dang well,” Tribe coach Karen Hoem said. “It's the closest to full four quarters we've had.”

Down the stretch, the visiting Cougars were poised to snatch the victory away from Elko. With 2:49 left in the game, Jacie Carlsen stole the ball from Elko, went the length of the court, made a layup and was fouled. After she converted the free throw, Spanish Springs was within one point at 54-53.

The Tribe's Lorena Torres, who committed the foul, immediately responded and hit a layup. Altenburg, who scored a game-high 28 points, knocked down a 3-pointer on the next Elko possession to push the lead back to six.

The Cougars' Jordan Rogers, who led her team with 24 points, struggled at the charity stripe down the stretch as she missed three straight including the front end of a one-and-one. With 63 ticks left on the clock, Rogers dropped in a layup to make it a 59-55 game.

Torres had the answer once again as she took the ball coast-to-coast for a layup. Shelby Bruns iced the game by knocking down 3 of 4 free throws in the final minute and also dropping in an open layup in transition.

“We played consistent and it was a team win,” said Hoem.

Ciera Dunbar and Bruns each came up with crucial rebounds in the final minutes to prevent the Cougars from any second-chance opportunities.

The win keeps the Lady Indians unbeaten in High Desert League play at 3-0 and they improve to 11-6 overall.

In the opening half, it appeared Elko was going to put the game away early. Altenburg hit a layup in the opening seconds. She then stole the ball on the inbound and hit another shot. A minute later, she stole the ball again and hit a pull-up jumper.

Altenburg still was not done. Less than 30 seconds later, she drained the first of four 3-pointers to open a 9-0 lead.

Rogers finally got the Cougars on the scoreboard with a trey but Altenburg knocked down a pair of free throws to push the lead to 11-3.

Altenburg's teammates saw how much fun she was having and joined in the scoringfest. Sara Inman hit a long jump shot. A few seconds later, Torres followed by stealing the ball in the Tribe's press defense and putting in a layup for a 15-3 lead.

“We made some defensive changes and I think that caught them off guard,” Hoem said of her team's early run. “It was a matter of our defense creating offense.”

In the second quarter, Torres dropped in a 3-pointer and Altenburg, who had 20 points by halftime, nailed six straight free throws to make it a 34-20 game at the break.

But the Cougars, who were 3-0 in league coming into the contest, were not going away.

“We told them at halftime that they were going to have to weather the storm,” Hoem said. “We knew they were going to come after us in the third.

After a three from Rogers and a layup by Arianna James, the Cougars cut the deficit to 41-37. The game remained close the rest of the way.

Altenburg's 28 points Friday give her 1,660 for her prep career and she is only 12 points away from breaking a 22-year old school record held by Elko great Dyann Rogers (1,671). Altenburg should eclipse the mark today against Fallon. The tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.