Sparks dismissed Yerington and kept its undefeated league record intact with a 71-51 home victory Wednesday night in boys 3A North League basketball action.

Sparks grabbed an early lead and never let up in the lopsided victory.

“I feel like we didn't defend very well, but we got a lot of easy baskets,” Sparks coach Dick Lee said. “We've been jumping out well pretty early.”

Sparks (10-7, 7-0 3A North) missed its first four shots but then Andrew Garcia dropped in a layup that was followed by a dunk from Angel Guillen for a 4-0 lead for the Railroaders. With a 9-7 lead, Sparks scored 11 straight points to take control. With 1:32 left on the first-quarter clock, Garcia hustled to save a ball that was bouncing out of bounds. He flicked it behind his back straight into the hands of Guillen for a basket, making the score 16-7.

The Railroaders gave up a basket with eight seconds left to Yerington's Aaron Crowl to finish out the opening period still up 20-9.

The Lions (1-6, 3A North) were never able to threaten Sparks after that. Yerington did cut the lead to nine twice in the second quarter but that was as good as it got for the Lyon County school, which wound up trailing by 13, 40-27, at halftime.

“In the first half, we offensive rebounded real well,” Lee said. “We didn't shoot real well. In the second half, we went to a delay game and got a lot of easy shots. You shouldn't miss a lot of those”

Sparks pushed it's lead to 44-27 in the first 1:13 of the second half on a layup by Erik Garcia and a tip-in from Guillen.

“The biggest thing that they did was that they got some easy chances for buckets,” Yerington coach Daron Wildermuth said. “They rebounded the ball real well.”

Martin Jordan sank a trey and Erik Garcia followed that with lay-up for a 51-32 Sparks edge with 3:51 left in the third.

With a 55-37 lead heading into the final period, Sparks scored the first six points of the fourth. That mini run was capped by an alley-oop by Guillen off an inbounds pass by Garcia for a 61-39 edge.

The Railroaders posted another 6-0 run with 3:05 left on the game clock on a drive to the hoop by Andrew Garcia, which was assisted by Guillen for a 69-43 lead.

Guillen had a game-high 20 points. Andrew Garcia and Erik Garcia had 16 and 15 points respectively. Martin added 12 of his own in the winning effort for the Railroaders.

“I think the soccer season gave him (Andrew) a lot of confidence, the success he had with soccer,” Lee said. “He's playing with a lot of confidence on the offensive end. He's probably the first or second best on-ball defender too. He's really had a great year.”

Tyler Crowl had 14 for the Lions and Burke Bristol added 13.

Sparks is now on the road for four straight games.

“We've got to be able to take the crowd out of the game and quiet them,” Lee said.

Sparks is back in action Friday at Dayton.

- Girls -

Sparks had a shot at nabbing its first league win of the season against Yerington, but fell short in a 55-26 3A North League home loss to Yerington. The SHS crew trailed just 21-16 with six minutes left in the third quarter. However, the Railroaders went on a dry spell that lasted through the rest of the third quarter and into the fourth.

Chelsea Harris finally knocked down a free throw for Sparks with 6:41 left in the game with her team left trailing 33-17. Sparks was never able to come back from the deficit.

Things heated up with less than a minute left when players from Yerington and Sparks were ejected from the game for fighting.

The Railroaders were outscored 22-9 in the fourth quarter en route to the lopsided defeat.