Old basketball rivalry renewed as Pahrump hosted Beatty

Tuesday night’s game with Beatty was a blast from the past for some native Pahrumpians who remembered the days when the Hornets played Pahrump on a regular basis.

Pahrump beat Beatty 59-39 in non-league action.

According to Trojans athletic director Larry Goins, you would have to go back to the late 1980’s and 1990’s to find Pahrump and Beatty in the same league.

But he did say the two teams still met on a regular basis for a long time.

Hornets coach Steve Sullivan recalled those days.

“I remember we played them a lot and I graduated from high school in 2005,” he said.

The Trojans basketball team couldn’t afford to stay idle this week and so they took on their neighbor to the north, Beatty, even though Pahrump outsized them.

Clark County School District didn’t schedule any games for the week following the Martin Luther King holiday due to testing, and this made it difficult for the Nye County School District teams, who wanted to stay sharp. This led to the Trojans playing Beatty (8-4, 1-1 Class 1A Southern) in what used to be a regular occurrence.

Both schools are in highly competitive leagues. Beatty is trying to keep up with Spring Mountain and Pahranagat Valley and Pahrump (6-14, 0-4) is trying to just keep its head above water in the Class 3A Sunset League

Antonio Fortin, who scored 19 points, led the Trojans. Fortin frustrated Beatty with his uncanny ability to make his way to the basket. He also had a pair of three-point shots late in the game.

Also contributing to the scoring was David Sidhu with 10, and Nick Harris, who had nine.

The Trojans starters were able to keep Beatty down, leading at the half, 33-20.

Robby Revert led the Hornets with 11 points. Beatty did outscore the Trojans in the fourth quarter 9-8.

Jacob Oseguera had eight points and Isaias Femat and Matt Reetz both had six points.

Beatty needed this game for preparation to host Sandy Valley (6-5, 0-2) today at 6 p.m. The next game for the Trojans will be at home Tuesday against Western (6-12, 2-2) at 6:30 p.m.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com