By Courtney Renee

The Pahrump Valley Trojans battled against the Western Warriors on Friday night at home, but unfortunately the boys and girls varsity teams did not prevail.

Both teams had opportunities to win, keeping the score close the entire time.

The boys team started off with a bang, leading by 11 points by the end of the first quarter. They led the majority of the game in fact.

In the middle of the third quarter, Western took over the lead, and the battle to be the scrappiest team began.

Head Coach Brian Hayes was disappointed by the loss, but believes his team has the heart for the game.

“We are so competitive, but we just try to do too much,” Hayes said.

That competitive nature and heart shined through with 2:23 left in the game, when senior guard Billy Palmore went down with a hip injury that would cause a 40-minute delay in game play.

Palmore was unable to be taken off the court until an ambulance arrived with a stretcher to carry him off. The emotion was high as everyone waited for the ambulance to arrive. When the ambulance arrived, the crowd showed their support by chanting Billy’s name as he was carried out of the gym.

Hayes believed the high emotion and time delay affected his squad both mentally and physically.

“Physically it probably affected both teams. That’s a long time to stand around. Mentally and emotionally it was tough. They just started to try too much after that,” Hayes said.

The referees allowed for the boys to get stretched out and warm back up, but the high emotion took over and the boys began trying to do too much.

Before the injury the game was tied at 41 points. However, an abundance of turnovers allowed for too many opportunities for Western to score, and the Trojans fell short. They lost 44-53.

Hayes met with his team at the end of the game, telling them to look forward to the games ahead.

“I told them just to play for Billy, he is a senior and he won’t be able to play basketball again. That’s what they are going to do next week,” Hayes said.

Lady Trojans

The Lady Trojans fought a hard battle as well. However, they remain winless in league. They lost 28-34.

Head Coach Jennifer Hagstrom states that their biggest problem is scoring.

“We just can’t score. We can hold teams to their lowest scores of their season, but we just can’t score. You expect to hold a team to 34 points and win,” Hagstrom said.

Western was held to only 10 points in the first half, 6 points coming from free throws.

Pierce Capricia for Western scored 9 of the 10 points in the first half. She was held to 4 points in the second half. Destiny Gonzales for Western was held to only 5 points. Gonzalez is one of the top scorers in the league.

Hagstrom’s team is composed mostly of sophomores, hinting that prospects for the future are good.

“We are a young team and we are improving each game. The Skilling sisters have improved dramatically, Britney has become the second leading scorer on the team and we have a really good freshman class this year.

There are also a lot of good athletes coming up from the middle school,” Hagstrom said.

Western was 16 for 26 at the free throw line while the Trojans were only 6 for 18.

The Trojans will play their last home game on Thursday against Faith Lutheran.