The 2019-20 Lincoln County High girls basketball team has played their final game of the season. Though they didn’t come home state champions, they gave it their all and have every reason to be proud.
The girls fell to Incline in the state semis, 57-37.
The young team, made up of just three seniors, struggled in their first game of the year against Boulder City during the Lake Mead Holiday Classic. The next two games of the tournament saw them rise above the Southeast Career Tech Roadrunners and The Meadows Mustangs. White Pine fell to the Lynx during their visit to Panaca, but when the girls went to Mesquite they were beaten by the hosting Virgin Valley Bulldogs. The rest of the Lady Bulldogs invitational was similar, with the Lady Lynx losing to the Wasatch Wasps and the Enterprise Wolves. But, once Lincoln County came home, they pushed back hard and defeated their neighbors and rivals, the Pahranagat Valley Panthers.
Prior to their state semifinals game in Reno, the Lincoln County High School girls basketball team was awarded the 2019-2020 2A academic state championship.
After decimating the Mountain View Christian Saints, the Lynx in turn were defeated by the Calvary Chapel Lions before beating The Meadows Mustangs a second time. There was one more loss to Virgin Valley, after which the girls saw a four-game winning streak against the Needles Mustangs, the Laughlin Cougars, the Saints and the Lake Mead Eagles. The Moapa Valley Pirates brought that winning streak to a close, but it was soon followed by another three-game streak against the Eagles, the Lions and Meadows.
Needles then ended this string of victories, followed by another win for Lincoln against Laughlin, sending the Lady Lynx into the regional playoffs.
Hopes were high as Lincoln County came into the tournament in first place, and they defeated the fourth-place Lake Mead Eagles.
While the girls were able to keep up for most of the game during the regional championship against Calvary, the unanswered 15-point deficit in the first quarter proved just too big to overcome.
Despite this, hopes continued to soar as the Lady Lynx qualified for the NIAA / One Nevada State Championships, where they faced off against Incline in the semifinals. That was where things took a turn for the worse. Lincoln County did everything they could, but between the morale loss that came with their defeat against Calvary Chapel and the fact that there were a few very tall players on the Highlanders’ team, the girls just couldn’t keep up. Thus, the Lady Lynx’s season ended 57-37.
Nevertheless, the girls put up some impressive stats in the game. Senior Sadie Soderborg scored 13 points, sinking two much-needed 3-pointers and pulling in four rebounds with one steal. Abby Mathews, a freshman, rose to the occasion as well, scoring six points, recovering an impressive 12 rebounds and stealing the ball four times. Sophomore Vanessa Robison also did her part by scoring nine points and grabbing eight rebounds while stealing the ball two times. Overall, the team was 22 percent accurate on scoring.
While this may spell the end of the 2019-2020 season, most of the team will move on having learned a lot. Mathews and Robison will return next year, and through their example, as well as the examples left behind by departing seniors Macie Howard, Nat Romero and Soderborg, they could just rally next year’s team to become the best in the state.
