Beatty Hornets end losing streak in win over Panthers

The Beatty High School boys basketball team ended their losing streak on Saturday afternoon with a 52-49 win over the Pahranagat Valley Panthers.

The Hornets were 2-7 and had lost six consecutive games going into their matchup with the Panthers.

Their last win was a 61-15 victory over the Mountain View Christian Saints on Dec. 6.

But, before the Hornets played the Panthers, they opened league play on Friday night with a game against the Mineral County Serpents.

Beatty had a tough first half against the Serpents, going into the locker room down 14-33.

Junior guard and Serpents captain DeVayne Isom had 15 of Mineral County’s 33 first-half points. He scored 11 points in the second quarter alone.

The Hornets offense finally came alive in a huge way in the third quarter. They outscored Mineral County 19-11, cutting the Serpents’ lead down to ten points going into the fourth quarter.

Sophomore guard Eric Figueroa scored 11 points in the third quarter for the Hornets. He finished with 14 points in the game, all of them coming in the second half.

The Hornets weren’t able to keep the momentum going in the fourth quarter, as Beatty would fall to the Serpents 53-42.

This brings us to Saturday’s matchup with the Panthers.

Pahranagat Valley was coming into the game with a 3-8 record and fresh off a loss of their own on Friday night in a matchup with Tonopah High School.

Senior guard Effrain Moreno led Beatty to an 11-10 lead with six points in the quarter. He would go on to finish with a game-high 19 points.

With a strong second quarter, Pahranagat Valley took a 29-28 lead into halftime.

After a subpar quarter by both teams, the Panthers led 37-35 going into the final quarter.

Behind five 3-pointers in the fourth, three of them coming from Figueroa, the Hornets were able to pull out the victory, 53-49.

Beatty used a 9-2 run to take a 49-44 lead late in the fourth and never looked back.

Senior forward Francisco Granados finished the game with 11 points.

With their losing streak over, the Hornets now hold a 3-7 record going into their home matchup this Friday with the Lund Mustangs.

Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.