Rams boys down Jaguars

With nine seniors on the boys basketball roster, Senior Night was quite a production at Rancho High on Tuesday.

And, after defeating Desert Pines 50-41, those seniors might have extended their season.

The win puts Rancho (16-10, 7-6 Northeast League) in a tie with Chaparral for third place in the Northeast League with one game to play. Desert Pines and Las Vegas are a game back at 6-7.

The top four teams advance to the postseason.

"I've got nine seniors on the team, and those seniors just won't let us die," Rancho coach Melvin Shivers said. "The kids just wouldn't die tonight. They knew how important that game was, and it feels good to win at Rancho. We've had a dry spell over the last four years, and our goal this year was to make the playoffs. And hopefully, we can get the job done."

Desert Pines (9-12, 6-7) struggled offensively against Rancho's 2-3 zone. The Jaguars' offense looked stagnant, and their outside shooting was atrocious. Desert Pines made 1 of 20 3-point attempts.

"We play excellent zone," Shivers said. "That's our strong point, because we're big inside with (Tyler) Gaston and (Amir) Royal and Kevin Plascencia."

Gaston, Royal and Plascencia combined to grab 25 rebounds as the Rams had a 41-31 rebounding edge.

Royal led the way with 19 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots. Gaston had 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots, and Plascencia had 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.

Tyler Larson led Desert Pines with 17 points, and teammate Dominique Lawrence had 10 rebounds.

Rancho still might need some help to reach the playoffs. The Rams travel to first-place Canyon Springs (13-0 Northeast) on Friday.

"We've won 16 games and we're kind of still under the radar," Shivers said. "Hopefully with this win tonight, we can get some people to follow us over to Canyon Springs for a bigger win."

Contact Prep Sports Editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587.