Boys basketball: Vaqueros roll Sparks, play in tournament next week

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

After giving up 67 points in a game to Spring Creek a week ago, Fernley coach Derek Miller wasn’t happy.

Five practices and one game later, Miller was much more content.

Fernley opened the game with a 22-0 run and were never threatened in beating Sparks 73-36 last Saturday. The Vaqueros improved to 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the Northern 3A. They host Yerington Thursday, then play next week in the Rail City Classic in Sparks, before resuming league play against Fallon Jan. 2

Zac Terra hit four 3-pointers and finished with 20 points to lead the Vaqueros, who also got double figures from Zach Burns and Ricky Dumont with 11 points each, and Russ Ortiz with 10.

The final 12 minutes of the game were played with a running clock, after Fernley extended it’s lead to 35 points.

Terra’s first 3-pointer of the game came with 1:45 left in the first quarter and capped the opening 22-0 run. Sparks fought back to within 27-13, but Fernley scored eight quick points to push the lead back up, and took a 40-19 lead at halftime.

The Vaqueros then started the second half the way they started the first, holding Sparks scoreless for the first four minutes of the third quarter, while scoring 14 consecutive points to open a 54-19 lead.

“It’s hard when you have running clock,” coach Derek Miller said. “You want to keep your rotations and things, and I moved put kids in a lot faster than I normally do.”

Having a week off before the game, Miller said the Vaqueros focused on defense in practice.

“We still have lapses every once in a while, which all kids do, but we had five really good days of practice and we just really worked on our man defense, and that’s what we did the whole game and kind of rode with it,” he said.