RENO — The Reno Huskies continue to show why they are the class of northern Nevada girls basketball. Reno, the defending Northern 4A champion, got off to a fast start and turned away Spanish Springs 65-45 in a High Desert League tilt Tuesday night.

Leading 6-4 three minutes into the game, Reno reeled off 11 unanswered points and was never seriously threatened.

“That’s one thing about Reno. They continue to put pressure on you and then go on runs where they score quickly,” Spanish Springs coach Christine Eckles said. “They’re a good team that allows their defense to transition to offense. They can put a lot of points on the board.”

Spanish Springs then got a layup from Caitlin McKinney, following a back-door cut, and a 17-foot jumper from Kelly Hernandez in the final minute of the first period to trail 17-8 after the first eight minutes

The second period was a back-and-forth stretch of play. Reno outscored Spanish Springs 17-15 in the eight-minute span. Tiffany Lang’s off-balance jumper as time expired on the first half left Spanish Springs facing a 34-23 deficit.

Reno pulled away with a 14-5 outburst to open the second half. The Huskies pushed their lead to 20, 48-28, for the first time with the key spurt. The RHS squad led 51-33 after three periods.

Spanish Springs had some fight left. A string of three straight Huskies turnovers in the backcourt saw the visiting Cougars stay in contention briefly. The last of the Huskies’ giveaways resulted in an Ari James layup that helped Spanish Springs trim the Reno lead to 15, 53-38.

That’s as close as Spanish Springs could get as Reno outscored its guests 12-7 in the final five minutes.

“We knew they’d come after us,” Reno coach Shane Foster said. “We’ve played them three times. The last time was a close game for three quarters. Coach (Christine) Eckles does a great job preparing her kids and making sure they play every play and compete. Even when we got up 17-4, they kept fighting back. There’s no quit in her team and we knew that would happen.”

James led Spanish Springs with 13 points while Hernandez chipped in 10.

Reno helped its cause by forcing 26 Spanish Springs turnovers while only committing 15, just four in the first half as it was establishing momentum.

Spanish Springs did out-rebound Reno, 35-29.

“We’re struggling a little bit as a team,” Eckles said. “But I thought there were some positive things tonight that didn’t show up on the scoreboard, things we can build on and hopeully get us back on track.”

Reno got four players into double digits in the scoring column. Stephanie Rovetti led the way with 14 points. Erica Hansen contributed 12 to the winning cause while Megan Tobano and Taylor Powers added 10 points apiece.

“We talk about just being a team and taking good shots. If you’re open, take the shot and whoever scores, just does,” Foster said. “If we get three or four kids scoring that makes us a better team. You can’t prepare to take away one player. It’s nice to know we have kids that can put up double figures and that it can be different kids each night.”

Spanish Springs, which was saddled with its third straight loss, falls to 14-10 overall and 3-4 in league play. Reno improved to 18-5 and 8-0.

Spanish Springs goes to Hug Friday night for a 5:15 p.m. contest. Reno has this coming weekend off and then goes to Hug Tuesday.