Girls basketball: Vaqueros go 4-0 in Winter Tip Off Classic

It’s been six up and six down so far for the Fernley High School girls basketball team, which enters this week with a 6-0 record after winning all four games over the weekend in the Winter Tip Off Tournament at Spanish Springs.

The Vaqueros defeated Douglas 48-27 on Thursday, McQueen 40-39 on Friday and won twice on Saturday, 54-44 over Trinity (Weaverville, CA) and 59-46 over Pyramid L

The Vaqueros began the season with a 38-37 win over Reed on Dec. 1 and beat the Debbie Smith Career and Technical Academy 67-7 on Dec. 2.

“I thought overall it wasn’t too bad of a showing,” coach Ralph Dunn said.

Taylor Tollestrup led Fernley with 22 points in the win over Douglas, Lilliaanna Young added seven points and both Laura Rosales and Justice Martell-Artiaga scored six.

Tollestrup scored 18 more against McQueen, Martell-Artiaga added eight and Zaelynn Wasson hit a clutch 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter.

Saturday against Trinity, the Vaqueros opened up a 16-point lead in the third quarter, but saw Trinity cut the deficit to three before Fernley stretched it back out in the fourth quarter.

Irene Brown scored 19 points for the Vaqueros and Tollestrup added 13.

Tollestrup scored 24 and Martell-Artiaga added 17 against Pyramid Lake, as the Vaqueros did most of their damage inside.

But Dunn said the Vaqueros missed a lot of uncontested layups throughout the weekend and made only 25 of 52 free throws.

“We still need more conditioning,” Dunn said. “It was a factor on a lot of missed shots. (Those are) things we really have to improve on as the season goes on.”

While they struggled with those things offensively, Dunn said the Vaqueros did well defensively, especially making adjustments on the fly, pressing at times and playing both man-to-man and zone defenses.

“Our transition game was another bright spot, forcing some turnovers and getting the ball up the court,” he said. “The season is early but it’s nice to be 6-0 right now with some tough games coming up with Damonte/Galena coming to our house.”

The Vaqueros were scheduled to play at South Tahoe Tuesday in a Northern 3A crossover game, host Damonte Ranch at 7 p.m. Thursday and Galena at 7 p.m. Friday.