Boulder City High School’s boys basketball team fell short of its ultimate goal of winning a state championship on Saturday, Feb. 26, losing to Northern Nevada’s Elko 59-29, but capped off one of its best seasons in recent memory.
Finishing with a 22-8 record, the program’s fourth consecutive 20-win season, the Eagles reached the state championship game for the first time since 2009.
Head coach John Balistere called this season another building block toward their ultimate goal.
“I’m very proud of our team and our staff,” Balistere said. “No one expected us to be here. They said we couldn’t beat Somerset Losee, that SLAM Academy was a better team this season. To make it to the state championship game is quite an accomplishment for our program. We’re very eager to get back on the court in the spring and start working toward next season.”
Running out of gas in the state final against Elko, sophomore Roman Rose scored six points, and senior Martin Thompson scored five points.
Defeating Northern Nevada opponent Fernley in the state semifinals, the Eagles used a 22-14 fourth-quarter run to pull off a 53-49 victory.
Rose led the way with 22 points. Junior Bret Pendleton added 12 points and junior Bruce Woodbury added seven points.
Losing Thompson and senior Gavin Douglas to graduation, the Eagles still bring back a solid core for next season.
Having made two consecutive state tournament appearances, the Eagles hope to continue to be among the top contenders in the 3A classification.
Though they may have fallen a bit short in athletics, the Eagles took the top spot in the winter season’s academic championship with a collective grade point average of 3.51.
The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, the nonprofit governing body of high school sports in the Silver State, presents the special award each year to the team with the highest grade point average in each sport per classification and considers the academic championships to be equal to the athletic awards.
The Lady Eagles basketball team also won first place as the state academic champions in its sport with a 3.74 collective grade point average, and the flag football team came in third place with a 3.40 grade point average.
Contact Robert Vendettoli at BCRsports@gmail.com.