Dave Maxwell:
Allyse Frehner (5) and Laci Steele close in on an opponent in a recent game.  Pahranagat Valley looks to regain the 1A Southern league tournament title this weekend at Sunrise Mountain High. The state tournament is Feb. 24-25 in Las Vegas.V

Beginning back in November, the Pahranagat Valley girls basketball team had a goal: to earn another state title before they graduate. The seniors on the team, Shayla Leavitt, Alyson Egbert, Allyse Frehner have tasted that before, as sophomores. Newcomer Kyla Shumway would like to also in her final season.  

And it would not displease coach Amy Huntsman to add to her already impressive state record of 13 titles.

League play finished last week, as the Lady Panthers routed Beaver Dam 53-27 on
Senior Night. Laci Steele had nine points to lead the scoring for PVHS. Chyanne Dahlberg led the Diamondbacks with 10 points.

Huntsman said, “I think it took us a couple of quarters to get going. There’s a lot of emotion when it’s your last home game. We had four seniors and we had one out of position so we could start out with those four, so it kind of was a weird dynamic at the beginning, we weren’t able to get our rhythm and our momentum. I felt like after the half we played a different ball game, a completely different team.”

She added later, “I thought they played very well and in the end we had those seniors in and were able to get them out one-at-a-time. That’s a pretty special moment to me to be able to give them that honor and recognition they deserve. It’s always hard to graduate kids.”

The 1A Southern Regional playoffs began on Wednesday this week. First round games had Beaver Dam and Tonopah and Word of Life at Beatty.  The winners of those game will move on to the semifinals this Friday at Sunrise Mountain.  Beaver Dam/Tonopah will face Pahranagat Valley (14-8) and Word of Life/Beatty will meet Round Mountain.

The championship will be at Sunrise Mountain Saturday at noon. Round Mountain (14-8) is the defending league champion.

Owyhee (16-4) is the defending state champion, and the Braves are in the Northern 1A playoffs in Elko this weekend along with Virginia City, McDermitt, Mineral County, Sierra Lutheran, Eureka and Wells.

NIAA admission prices will apply for all tournament games.