Las Vegas High bounces back, beats Rancho

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998 | 9:12 a.m.

After dropping a triple-overtime affair to Valley last Friday, it would have been understandable if the Las Vegas High boys basketball players got a little nervous the next time they found themselves in a tight game.

But on Wednesday night, the opposite occurred. The host Wildcats broke a tie with just over a minute to play and held on for a 77-69 victory over Rancho in a wild game that saw the lead change hands 16 times.

"Last Friday was a heartbreaker, so today we were more focused at the end of the game," said Wildcat guard Ronnie Miller, who scored 15 of his team-high 19 points in the second half.

With the hosts trailing 67-65 with two minutes remaining, Las Vegas' Aaron Gray stole a rebound from the Rams and fed the ball to teammate Jamill Ballard, who laid it in to knot the score.

After a pair of missed free throws by Rancho big man Dwayne Rogers, Miller wove his way through the Rams' defense and flipped the ball off the glass to give his team the lead for good.

Rancho (9-13, 6-6 Sunrise), which was plagued by turnovers throughout the night, threw the ball away on its next two possessions. The Wildcats (19-7, 9-3) made all six of their foul shots down the stretch to ice the win.

"We played well the last two or three minutes," said Las Vegas coach Tom Farnsworth, whose club remained in a second-place tie with Valley in the Sunrise Division. Farnsworth's club has won the division title the last two seasons.

The Rams' loss -- their fifth by fewer than 10 points -- kept coach Joe Stein's squad from gaining ground in its battle for the division's fourth and final playoff berth. Rancho sits in fifth place in the Sunrise with just four games remaining.

"These are the games that kill you. When it's tight, we just break down," Stein said. "It's getting frustrating, and losing can be contagious. But we're still right there. It could come down to our game against Chaparral Friday."

Until their collapse in the final two minutes, the Rams played well enough to come away with the upset. Despite their onslaught of turnovers, the visitors' up-tempo style proved to be a good counter for the Wildcats' aggressive, trapping defense.

With Donta Turner (26 points, nine rebounds) doing the bulk of the work inside and Shawn Atkinson (20 points) and Kevin Crockrom (16 points) bombing away from the perimeter, Stein's charges took a four-point lead in the final quarter.

But Rancho connected on just one if its seven 3-point attempts in the fourth, allowing Las Vegas to stay close for its final charge.

* ELSEWHERE: Sunrise Division leader Green Valley picked up its eighth straight win, a 57-36 victory over visiting Silverado. The Gators got 17 points from Jamar Glasper, 15 from Sam Earl and 11 from Cornell Williams.