The 1A state championships at Reno High featured a pair of winners from Northern Nevada teams, including a comeback by the Pyramid Lake girls to claim a historic fourth consecutive state championship.
After putting up 83 points in Friday’s state semifinal against Owyhee, it was a slower start on offense for both teams on Saturday. The Lakers led 18-15 at halftime and the Vandals took a 28-23 lead late in the third quarter. Pyramid Lake rallied behind a 21-0 fourth quarter run and held the Vandals to just three points in the final eight minutes to win their fourth consecutive state championship, 44-31. The Lakers finish the 2025-26 season 28-3 overall.
“We definitely were struggling, and we couldn’t get into any rhythm,” Pyramid Lake girls basketball head coach Ray Charles told NSN after the game. “It took our whole team, whether it was a veteran or a younger player or just the desire to compete. I think that once we got a little bit of momentum, they just took off and it’s contagious, right, once you have some momentum on your side. It wasn’t just one kid or two kids and being a little bit young and not being in that environment and not really having too many really crucial games like that puts us on our heels when we get into that situation. But the great thing is you could see the confidence once they were able to get some rhythm and they took off. So to make that kind of run and that confidence and then lock down our defense. We talk about controlling our defense, being a big part of our team is our defense.”…