In late February, the Spanish Springs High boys basketball team took eventual state champions Bishop Gorman to the limit before falling 75-68 in the state semifinals. The 2017-18 team won a regional title just a week before after winning a school-high 24 games and finishing nearly perfect in conference play at 15-1.
Nine months later, they are picking back up right where they left off.
Despite losing star Jalen Townsell from last years squad, the Cougs feature a veteran roster with nine seniors and plenty of experience. That was on display over the weekend when they kicked off the season with a Wild West Shootout championship after finishing the tourney 3-0.
Senior guard DJ Panfili drained five 3-pointers and finished with 23 points while fellow senior Leo Grass netted 18 in a 76-66 win over Bishop Manogue in the tournaments title game Saturday. The Cougs trailed 34-30 at the half but held the Miners to just 12 third quarter points in the win.
Grass led the team the night before with 15 points in a 51-41 win over Folsom, Calif. Cordell Stinson had eight points and 12 rebounds for the Cougs.
Spanish Springs opened the tourney with a 77-51 victory against Birmingham High out of Northern California. Stinson led the way with 19 points for the Cougs while Panfili had 14.
The Cougs play five games in the next seven days that began last night with Damonte Ranch.
Reed
The Raiders were bounced early from the regional playoffs last season after winning 15 games and finishing in third place in the High Desert League. This year, Reed returns seven seniors to its squad and has designs of making a deep playoff run.
Reed got off to a strong start after winning both of its games in a tournament in Elko over the weekend. They beat Meridan, ID on Friday with a score of 86-71 before knocking off Elko the next day 64-62. Stats from both games were unavailable.
The boys played Galena yesterday and will play three more games this week with times to be announced.
Sparks
After a tough season in 2017-18, the Railroaders got into the win column for the first time in over a year Saturday when they knocked off Excel Christian 61-38.
Sparks lost its first two games of its home tournament, The Railroader Shootout, after falling 61-25 to Lowry on Friday and 60-29 to Lassen Thursday.
The Railroaders return five seniors this season and play next at South Tahoe to open conference play on Dec. 11.
Leave a Reply