With the 4A Nevada State Championship in just a matter of days, the Bishop Manogue Boys Basketball team has only two games to overcome to earn that title. The Miners come into the state playoffs at 25-2 including the postseason with a perfect record in league play. After beating Spanish Springs in the semifinals for regionals 69-44 on February 12th, two days later Bishop Manogue won regionals in the Spanish Springs’ Cougars home, defeating Reno High 59-47. This didn’t eliminate Reno from State, but it did allow the Miners to claim the number one seed in the north and Reno the second seed. State playoffs begin Friday, February 20th at Spanish Springs as well as Manogue will take on the two seed representative from the south, the Legacy High Longhorns at 4:40pm.

The Longhorns have a 23-8 record and had a couple common foes with the Miners, including Damonte Ranch and Somerset Academy Losee. Manogue went 2-0 against Damonte with their last meeting a throttling 40-point win for the Miners 75-35. They also beat Losee in a tournament 66-59. As for Legacy, they beat Losee in a nail biter 75-74 game but couldn’t summit Damonte as they lost 58-56. With all of this in mind, here’s how Manogue can get passed the Longhorns and even win State.

First, Mid-range shooting has to be consistent as the regional championship they were struggling. Secondly, three pointers have to fall especially for the likes of senior Liam Sorenson and junior Aaron Westphal. They have been the most consistent from three and just need to dial it down from last game. Defense has not been a problem for the Miners pretty much all year but performances from senior Connor Sheridan and Kade Snyder have to repeat once more to make a run on both sides of the ball. “Connor Sheridan… dropped a double-double with 14 points and 18 boards. Kade Snyder… almost dropped a double-double with 15 points and nine boards.” via MaxPreps Recap on the Regional Championship against Reno and the extension of the Miners win streak to 11. This shows we have just seen the floor from these two and they can factor into the State playoffs a lot more than before. Kade being 6’8″ and Connor being 6’9″ poses a real threat for any team just from their size alone within the paint.

For the Miners, this is the perfect scenario of being a number one seed and having the dominant talent on the court. Coach Babbitt will highlight the mistakes he saw throughout regionals within practice all week to make his players the best they can be for probably their biggest moment in their basketball careers so far. We will see if the miners’ strike a gold motherload or if the mine cart derails under the pressure within the home of the Cougars.