Girls basketball: Fernley enters Fallon game in second-place tie

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

Having lost both games on last weekend’s trip east to face Elko and Spring Creek, the good news for the Fernley High School girls basketball team was that both of those teams lost to Fallon, allowing each to make up only one game in the standings.

But now comes an even bigger challenge.

The Vaqueros play at Fallon Tuesday evening, and go into the game in a three-way tie with Elko and Lowry for second place with a 7-3 league record.

Fernley entered last weekend in sole possession of second place, but now will have to battle to reclaim that place.

At Elko, the Vaqueros lost Friday night, 55-45. Coach John Rogers said the difference in the game was that the Vaqueros didn’t shoot free throws well, while Elko made a lot of shots.

“Our defense was good with rotations but Elko didn’t miss much,” Rogers said. “We, on the other hand, forced a ton of shots and at one point we were down 12 early in the third. We cut it to 4 with about 3 minutes to go but late fouls at the end gave them points at the line and we couldn’t find the bucket on our end.”

Jaiden Sullivan led Fernley with 10 points, Hailee Edgar scored 9 and both Katelyn Bunyard and Celeste Condie had 8.

Saturday at Spring Creek, the Vaqueros made just 8-of-39 field goal attempts, and the result was a 54-31 loss.

“We couldn’t make any shots,” Rogers said. “We shot 40 percent from the free throw line and Spring Creek just basically kicked our butts.

Condie lead Fernley with 9 points and Sullivan scored 7.

“Our defense is predicated on our ability to get easy buckets and force the opposing team into turnovers,” Rogers said. “We were not able to do anything today because the ball simply wouldn’t go through the hoop.”