Long(horns) time coming

The last time Dover beat Lomega in girls basketball, a senior named Krista Bullis led the Lady Longhorns in scoring.

Bullis is now Krista Peck, the wife of current Dover girls coach Matt Peck, who made history on Friday night.

Behind an early flurry, the Lady Longhorns knocked off Lomega 60-40 at home to open the 202324 campaign.

It was the first win for Dover against Lomega since Feb. 3, 2006, when most of this year’s roster was not yet even born.

“This was huge for them,” said Peck of his team knocking down the Class B behemoth that has played in four straight state title games and won more state titles than any girls program in the state.

Most of the losses in the l7-year streak have been of the blowout fashion.

However, Dover had noticeably closed the gap with its on-court competitiveness last season.

The Lady Longhorns entered this year with almost all of the same cast from last year’s team that was just two wins shy of reaching the state tournament, giving the program high expectations.

Those hopes sky-rocketed when Dover hired Jared Reese, Chris Combs and Danny Green, the trio responsible for the Kingfisher boys’ basketball success for much of the past decade.

Those three were also assigned to Peck’s bench, giving the second-year coach some extra strategic weapons as well.

It all came together - at least in the team’s first showing of the season.

The Lady Longhorns raced to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and were up 22-13 by the end of the quarter.

Karlee Harviston scored eight points in the frame while Joi Caldwell added seven more.

Unlike Dover, Lomega coach Kevin Lewallen had some major gaps to fill in his lineup with the graduation of four-year starters - and All-Staters - Sydni Walker and Darcy Roberts.

The Lady Raiders’ inexperience in some areas showed early on, Lewallen said.

“They got off to a fast start and we didn’t handle it well,” he said. “You could tell we had a bunch of young kids out there playing.”

Still, Lomega was able to slow Dover’s momentum and kept the spread at nine points at halftime.

Abby Swart, the team’s leading returning scorer, had four 3-pointers and 14 points at the break.

Swart added five more in the second half to lead all scorers with 19.

However, she was the only Lady Raider to finish in double figures.

Dover had three. Ashley Gamez had at least one field goal in every quarter and ended her night with 18 points.

Karlee Harviston finished with 16 points while Katelyn Harviston added 11. She had eight of her points in the fourth quarter when Dover pulled away with a 17-8 run.

Caldwell scored eight points on the night while Rylee Buck scored seven.

Peck said his team was forced into too many turnovers by Lomega’s pressure, but the Lady Longhorns also didn’t let that overwhelm them as in years past.

“We had a lot of turnovers, but we really never got down,” he said. “That’s something we are getting better at: the next-play mentality.”

Lomega got five points apiece from Monse Rivera and Paige Wheeler.

“Dover played really well and we didn’t, so that’s the kind of result you get,” Lewallen said.

Peck said he’ll preach to his team that beating Lomega needs to be the beginning of a process, not the end of one.

“Lomega has such a rich tradition that beating them should give any team confi dence,” he said. “We just have to stay humble in the process and continue to get better.”

( Ed. note: Dover’s 4733 victory against Lomega in February 2006 came near the end of the 2005--

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06 regular season. In the teams’ next matchup near the beginning of the next season, Lomega defeated Dover 69-62. That was on Nov. 7, 2006. It was the first of three meetings that year with Lomega winning all three, including in the state championship game. The Nov. 7 victory was Lomega’s first in the rivalry since Feb. 14, 1998.)