Fernley girls get back into league play
Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter
After going 2-2 against Northern 5A teams in the Varsity Elite Tournament in Reno, the Fernley High School girls basketball team gets back into league play with three games this week.
The Vaqueros will play at Wooster Thursday in an East-West Division crossover game, then they play their first two East Division opponents of the season, hosting Spring Creek Friday at 6 p.m. and Elko Saturday at 1 p.m.
Wooster comes into Thursday’s game with a 4-7 record. Spring Creek is 10-1, while Elko is 5-2.
The Vaqueros are 8-6, and 3-0 against Northern 3A teams, all in crossovers against West Division teams. They won their first two games in the Varsity Elite Tournament, beating Galena 65-47 and Reno 62-57, before losing 43-30 to McQueen and 48-43 to Douglas.
The Vaqueros opened the tournament Dec. 28 by beating Galena. They opened the game strong, leading 16-10 after a quarter. They stretched the lead to 43-34 entering the fourth quarter, then put the game away by outscoring the Grizzlies 22-13 in the fourth.
Freshman Jaelece Wasson led the Vaqueros with 24 points and six rebounds,, while Jasmyne Torres scored 16 points and had five assists and Nadia Velazquez added 12 points and five rebounds..
On Dec. 29, the Vaqueros started the day with the win over Reno. They trailed most of the game, and were down 50-39 going to the fourth quarter, but then outscored Reno 23-7 to claim the win.
Torres, with 25 points, and Wasson, with 23, accounted for all but 14 of Fernley’s points.
After a short break, the Vaqueros were back on the court, but were unable to keep up with McQueen. They got off to a slow start, scoring only four points in the first quarter and eight in the second. They cut the lead to 30-24 going to the fourth quarter, but were outscored 13-6 to end the game.
Torres had 19 points for Fernley and Wasson had 7.
The final game of the tournament was a battle. The Vaqueros trailed 8-5 after a quarter and 21-19 at the half, but couldn’t get over the hump in the second half
Velazquez was the only Fernley player in double figures with 14 points.
“The tournament was opportunity to grow and we definitely are doing that in some areas but not on some details that are important to the game but very fixable this next week coming up for practice,” coach Tom Kingston said. “These tournaments are about what’s working, what’s not and to become a better player and a better teammate. If you are not failing you are not trying. So we definitely had some failures and will get better every day.”