Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter
After losing the opening game Thursday night, the Fernley High School girls basketball team won its last two games at the High Sierra Winter Challenge at Spanish Springs.
Friday the Vaqueros beat Heritage (Littleton, Colo.) 61-46, then Saturday they wrapped up the tournament with a 47-24 win over Casa Roble (Orangevale, Calif.).
The Vaqueros wound up 2-1 in the tournament.
“Good start to the season, but a long way to go,” coach John Rogers said.
Against Heritage, the Vaqueros built a double-digit first half lead, but saw Heritage cut the lead to three on two occasions in the third quarter.
“They started getting a lot more aggressive and started showing that they weren’t scared of us,” Rogers said. “We had to take a step back and get our composure back and relax. Once we did that we started to get our lead back.”
After Heritage pulled within 37-34 with 1:49 left in the third quarter, Katelyn Bunyard converted a steal and a layup t start a 7-0 run as Fernley moved ahead 44-34 with 7:19 left in the game.
Heritage got back within 48-43 with 2:18 left in the game. Bunyard ended that run with a basket with 2:03 left in the game, then scored a three-point play with 1:44 left for a 53-43 lead. Fernley made 7 of 10 free throws in the final 1:30 to put the game away.
Jaiden Sullivan led Fernley with 15 points, Celeste Condie scored 1 and both Hailee Edgar and Bunyard finished with 9.
Saturday morning the Vaqueros ran past Casa Roble 47-24.
Fernley led 15-9 after a quarter and 27-18 at halftime, and blew the game open by outscoring the Rams 14-5 in the third quarter.
“We played very good at times and very lazy and sloppy at others,” Rogers said. “We got a good idea of where we are and now we need to get better and make adjustments and commit to the process this team is taking.”
Natalie steward led a balanced effort with seven points for Fernley, while Edgar, Carli Burns, Sullivan, Erica Kingston and Brittany Gaitan each scored six points.
The Vaqueros play a nonleague game at Spanish Springs Thursday, then open league play by hosting Elko Friday and Spring Creek Saturday.
Rogers said everything the Vaqueros did in the tournament and will do against Spanish Springs is with an eye on being ready for the league games.
“We’ve got to figure out how to jell and how to work together and where our strengths and weaknesses are,” Rogers said. “We’re going to try to fix our weaknesses and improve our strengths.”
Fernley scoring vs. Heritage: Hailee Edgar 9, Karli Burns 2, Jaiden Sullivan 15, Erica Kingston 4, Reese Jones 5, McKenna Montgomery 2, Katelyn Bunyard 9, Celeste Condie 10, Brittany Gaitan 4, Natalie Stewart 1.
Fernley scoring vs. Casa Roble: Edgar 6, Burns 6, Stewart 7, Sullivan 6, Erica Kingston 6, Montgomery 4, Bunyard 4, Condie 2, Gaitan 6
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