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Asher Haworth guards his man, Tonopah’s Jesus Martinez. Pahranagat Valley faces Moapa Valley in non-league action on Saturday.
Pahranagat Valley boys are getting ready for their all-important regular season ending matchup with Spring Mountain at Indian Springs Feb. 7.
Moving toward that day, they took a pair of league wins last week. Culen Highbe posted a game-high 22 points and helped the Panthers rout the visiting Tonopah Muckers 52-29 on Saturday.
Brodey Maxwell added eight points for Pahranagat Valley, which led 11-0 after the first quarter.
Jesus Martinez led Tonopah with 13 points, including four 3-point plays.
Pahranagat senior forward Richard Lewis played a very aggressive game, only scoring seven points, but contributing heavily to the offensive and defensive rebounding. Pahranagat was 9-for-16 at the foul line.
Coach Michael Strong said of Lewis, “He is coming out of his shell this year, and we want him to be even more aggressive. I don’t think even he realizes the type of player that he can be for us. He rebounds the ball so well.”
Strong has noted at other times “when Richard and Culen are playing well together, we’re a pretty good team.”
On Friday night, Pahranagat grabbed an 18-1 lead after the first quarter en route to a 61-33 their victory over Liberty Baptist on Friday.
Christian Ramirez led Liberty Baptist with 13 points, and teammate Isaiah Smith added nine points.
Highbe had a game-high 20 points for Pahranagat. The Panthers played their entire roster and all scored except one.
The team has an important non-league game with SLAM (Sports Leadership and Management) Academy in Henderson tonight, and another non-league game with Moapa Valley.
In February, they have two equally important games, one on Feb. 7 at Indian Springs against league co-leader Spring Mountain, and one on Feb. 9 in Alamo against Indian Springs and high-scoring Dallin Davis, who is averaging 25.6 points per game.
Pahranagat and Spring Mountain split their games last year, with Spring winning in the regular season, but Pahranagat winning the league tournament title. In the series since 2005, Pahranagat holds a 14-8 edge, but Spring Mountain has won six of the last seven.
