INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — The North Tahoe girls’ basketball team captured the Class 2A Northern league championship Friday and stamped a ticket to this weekend’s state tournament in Las Vegas.

The Lakers took a 39-25 win against Pershing County in the league championship game at Incline High School, capping an undefeated run through the Northern League and a historic season for the program.

“I can’t even describe it,” said Head Coach Jason Flesock. “Our program has a tough history, so when I took over I wanted to make sure people respected our program again. We’ve put a lot of time in year by year to improve. This is a culminating season for us, four or five years of really hard work by our players and coaching staff.”

---

---

North Tahoe showed signs of improvement last season, finishing with a winning record for the first time since 2009. This year, the Lakers have taken their play to another level, defeating league opponents by an average of 25.6 points per game on the way to a 16-0 record, including playoffs. The team’s league championship may also be the first in program history.

Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association online archives date back to 2011. Lakers coaches have kept record on http://www.maxpreps.com since 2007. This year’s team is the third to finish the season with a winning record during that span.

---

---

“In our opinion this is something that we haven’t been able to achieve before,” said Flesock. “When we talked to some of the old coaches, this is the first time the program has really achieved anything like this.”

The top-seeded Lakers opened the regional tournament Friday against No. 4 seed Yerington and rode an early lead to a 47-29 win.

North Tahoe senior captain Nicole Sosa Castellanos led the Lakers in the first quarter Friday night, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers as part of nine points in the game. She would later cap off the Lakers’ first half by sinking a 3-pointer from a few steps inside half court as the buzzer sounded to give North Tahoe a 28-17 edge.

Both teams struggled offensively in the third quarter, scoring a total of seven points. Sophomore Makenna Alter scored both baskets for a North Tahoe team that outscored Yerington 4-3 during the period. Alter finished with 10 points on the night.

The Lakers would pick things up in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 points on the way to a third win against Yerington this season.

Junior Alana Hendricks scored 10 points for North Tahoe. Sophomore Laura Couwenhoven scored seven points, including five straight during a stretch in the fourth quarter. Junior Keadle Verkler added five points, junior Virginia Gibeaut scored four points, and senior Kiele Myers scored two points.

The Lakers then returned to Incline High School for Saturday morning’s championship game against Pershing County. North Tahoe led 11-6 after the first quarter, but then went scoreless in the second period, allowing the Mustangs to take a 13-11 lead into halftime.

Couwenhoven would give the Lakers their first lead since the first half, scoring on a putback just past the midway point of the third quarter. North Tahoe would go on to build 27-19 lead by the end of the quarter. The Lakers would push their lead into double digits during the fourth quarter and take a 39-25 victory to claim the league championship.

Alter led the team with 11 points and five steals. Hendricks had eight points and 11 rebounds. Sosa had seven points. Couwenhoven had four points and eight rebounds. Senior Sophia Jeffery had four points and Verkler had three points.

North Tahoe will now take an 18-game winning streak to Las Vegas to compete in the Class 2A State Girls Basketball Playoffs. The Lakers will face the Southern League runner-up Needles in the semifinals on Friday at 12:20 p.m. at Cox Pavilion.

Needles finished the season with a 21-9 record and went 13-3 in league play. The Mustangs lost 69-36 to Democracy Prep Agassi Campus in Saturday’s Southern League championship game.

“The girls are super excited,” said Flesock. “The opportunity to compete in that tournament is a reflection of how much time we’ve put in and how hard we’ve been working to build success in the program. We’re going to go out there and play North Tahoe basketball.”

The winner of the game will play Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Thomas & Mack Center for the Class 2A state title.