Fernley girls suffer first two losses in Idaho Tournament

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

After reeling off nine straight wins, the Fernley High School girls basketball team suffered its first two losses of the season last weekend in the 6^th annual Timber-Lion Tournament in Boise.

The Vaqueros opened the tournament with their ninth win, 58-56 over (Boise) Bishop Kelly, but lost 68-51 to (Meridian, ID) Rocky Mountain and 56-46 to (Idaho Falls) Hillcrest.

Karli Burns and Willow Jacobson each scored 15 points against Bishop Kelly, while Celeste Condie added 11.

The Vaqueros trailed 44-37 heading to the fourth quarter, but outscored the Knights 21-12 in the fourth.

“The key for us winning that game was we had 16 turnovers, they had 23,” coach Tom Kingston said.

Friday, the Vaqueros struggled though a cold shooting night in the loss to Rocky Mountain. The Grizlies did most of their damage in the first and third quarters, with their advantage in those periods accounting for 15 of their 17-point final margin.

Fernley made just 15 of its 49 shots from the floor.

Jacobson’s 13 points led the Vaqueros, while Condie added 12.

“Against Rocky we had a poor day of shooting, we didn’t rebound the ball as well and gave up too many second and third chances,” Kingston said. “We just really never had our legs underneath us.”

The rims were even more unkind Saturday to the Vaqueros, who made only 13 of 55 shot attempts, and this time the woes extended to the free throw line, where they only hit 18-of-32 tries.

Still, the Vaqueros led 19-18 going to the second half, before the game turned with Hillcrest outscoring them 23-14 in the third quarter.

Jacobson and Jaiden Sullivan both scored 10 points to lead the Vaqueros.

“We shot poorly against Hillcrest, and they shot the ball really well, Kingston said. “Our defense was down some, didn’t look like it usually does.”

The Vaqueros don’t have to wait long to try to get back to their winning ways, hosting Dayton at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“It was a time that if things were going to happen, this was the time,” Kingston said. “We will get back to working hard and fine tuning what we need to clean up.”