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Wolverine boys’ basketball coach to face ex-team

BAY KELLEY, Sierra Sun

Mike Gray, head coach for the Tahoe-Truckee Wolverines’ boys’ basketball team, knows Rite of Passage.

Furthermore, Gray knows that, in order to defeat R.O.P., the team can’t play at all like it played in Truckee’s 66-60 loss to the Hug Hawks last Friday.

“We lost in the first quarter [against Hug],” Gray said to his team before practice on Tuesday. “R.O.P.’s going to be the same way. In the first quarter, they’re going to come at you nonstop, going 110 miles per hour. They’re going to come at you because they’ve got nothing to lose and they’re going to come at you because you’re number one.



“If, for one second, you let them think they’re going to win, they’re going to win.

“I know this team,” Gray said about R.O.P., who coached the Rams for five years before taking over the head coach position at Truckee this season. “I know what they do and I know how to stop them … hopefully.”



The Wolverines have established their game, consistently, in the closing quarters. Against Hug, Truckee fell to a 24-10 deficit in the first quarter and, despite outscoring the Hawks in the remaining three quarters, lost.

R.O.P. is the only remaining team in division I that the Wolverines have not defeated.

A win, at home, would put keep the Wolverines (4-0, 13-7) undefeated in division play and atop the field.

The game against R.O.P. begins Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Against Hug, Mark Logan scored a season high 39 points. The performance contributed to a 22.6 points per game scoring average, the best in the state so far this season. Peter Kenelly scored 12 points. Logan and Kenelly were the only double-digit scorers for the Wolverines.

“It’s not that hard to score 10 points,” Gray said to his team, speaking of individuals. “You score two goals in the first 16 minutes, maybe draw a foul. You score twice more in the second half and draw another foul. Then there’s the three-point line, that makes it really easy.”


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