Lady Nighthawks Lose, Inderkum Boys Advance

BY TREVOR HORN
THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz

The Natomas Nighthawks girls basketball players do one thing more than almost anyone else in the section:

They play a full 32-minute basketball game – literally.

With just six players eligible and dressed, playing three games in three nights is a chore, let alone playing against one of the deeper teams in the area. The Nighthawks lost the second-round game Friday evening to Placer 58-28 at the Natomas Varsity Tournament.

“One of our initial goals was to play 32 minutes of basketball,” Natomas head coach Stuart Welch said. “Every single possession matters. And over the last three games, they have been doing that.”

The team got a scare in the fourth quarter tonight when Sierra Moun went down with an ankle injury.

“She’s OK,” Welch said of Moun. “It’s a reoccurring injury, but she will be good-to-go tomorrow.”

The Nighthawks play Granite Bay on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the third place game.

Moun led the Nighthawks with 12 points before going to the bench. Moun and three other starters, Halle Hamre (11 points), Zakari York (three points) and Ashley Davis (two points) played the entire game. That’s a rough test when the opponents have almost three times as many players (17) as Natomas.

But Welch hopes that the resiliency of his players on defense will hopefully result in better outcomes as they become more comfortable within their abilities on the court.

“The work and effort (my players) put in tonight, I have no complaints,” Welch said. “They are playing 32 minutes every night.”

Inderkum boys advance to tourney finals