Late-season wins erase pain of losses

By Brent Hinckley

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009 | 10:26 p.m.

All fans of the Boulder City High boys basketball team can breathe a sigh of relief.

That seven-game losing streak is at an end — kaput, finito, finished. That monkey is off the Eagles' back.

The game that ended it was a 74-44 win against Adelson School.

They followed that win with a victory against Moapa Valley on the road.

Now, with three games left on the regular season schedule, it is plausible Boulder City's boys could head into the 3A Southern League tournament riding a five-game winning streak.

That's some good mojo to have, especially after the Eagles started this season with promise by posting an 8-3 record. Then trouble came and one loss turned into two consecutive losses, which became three and so on.

The season appeared to be quickly spiraling downward for Boulder City.

The Eagles' first three league losses were fairly close — by one point to Moapa Valley, by 11 to Virgin Valley and by eight to Faith Lutheran.

Throughout the stretch, coach Bobby Reese kept stating that his team was close. Fixing a mistake here or making a better decision there was the difference between winning and losing.

I try my best to be objective and present a fair point of view when it comes to Boulder City sports, but it is difficult not to root for a group of athletes who get along and play hard but just seem to run out of luck at the end of games.

So, it was a bit of a relief that the Eagles beat Adelson and then went on the road to Moapa Valley and pulled out a 16-point victory to snap the losing streak.

It's good to get some notches in the win column, especially if the team can keep it up through the rest of the regular season.

It will not be an easy stretch. The Eagles still play at Faith Lutheran on Feb. 6 and then close out league play with a home game against Virgin Valley on Feb. 13.

With a little bit of confidence that comes from wins against Adelson and Moapa, the Eagles can shake up the league.

If Boulder City really wants to show its improvement, the team needs to do something that hasn't been done in several years — win a playoff game.

That will bring another sigh of relief.

Brent Hinckley is the Boulder City News sports writer and can be reached at 990-7822 or [email protected].