Fernley girls bounce back from first loss with comeback win

With just 11 points on the board halfway through the third quarter last Friday night, the Fernley High School girls basketball team looked to be headed to its second loss in two nights after winning its first seven games.

Then they put up 30 points in the next quarter and a half to surge past Galena 41-37 and improve their record to 8-1.

The Vaqueros trailed 23-11 halfway through Friday night’s third quarter, and even after they generated some offense, still trailed 31-23 going to the fourth quarter, and 37-32 with 2:21 left in the game, before reeling off the game’s last nine points.

“We swapped up the defense and kind of gave them fits,” coach Ralph Dunn said. “Today we didn’t have any energy until we started pressing.”

The Vaqueros started getting steals out of their press, leading to scoring opportunities before Galena set its defense. Taylor Tollestrup scored 17 of her 22 points in the final 12 minutes of the game after watching shot after shot roll off the rim through the first two and a half quarters. She scored seven points in the closing 9-0 run.

“We were looking inside for her because she’s pretty dominant,” Dunn said.

The night before against Damonte Ranch had been a similar story, without the game-closing run. The Vaqueros trailed 24-12 with five minutes left in the third quarter, but a 13-3 run got them back within 27-25 in their only fluid offensive stretch of the game.

“We just couldn’t buy a basket and we turned the ball over,” Dunn said.

Justice Martell-Artiaga led the Vaqueros with 14 points, while Tollestrup scored seven and Laura Rosales had six.

On Dec. 9, the Vaqueros beat South Tahoe 50-25. Offense came much easier that night, as the Vaqueros outscored the Vikings 20-2 in the first quarter and were up 34-8 at halftime.

Tollestrup scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Martell-Artiaga scored seven and Tatiana Velazquez had six.

Dunn said being in tight games down the stretch against good teams like Damonte Ranch and Galena will benefit the Vaqueros as the season progresses.

“There’s a lot of learning from them,” he said. “We’ve just got to make a goal on getting to the regionals, which we should be able to, and then hopefully get to the next step.”

This week the Vaqueros were scheduled to host Incline in a Northern 3A crossover game on Tuesday.