The postseason has been a familiar hill for the Fernley High School boys basketball team. Four straight years of climbing toward a state title, four straight years of coming up just short.
After a 66–36 win over Incline in Monday’s opener, the Vaqueros begin another ascent Friday in the 3A North Region semifinals.
The Vaqueros will face Dayton at 5:10 p.m. Friday with a berth in the state tournament and the regional championship game on the line.
It’s a quick rematch of last Friday’s game, which the Vaqueros won 69-38 on the strength of strong defense and rebounding and a 26-8 third quarter.
Knutson said the Vaqueros were focused on stopping Dayton’s top two scorers, Isaac Powell and Talon Brown, who combine for more than 40 points per game and accounted for 73 points in a game at Fallon earlier this season.
Although the Vaqueros led 37-24 at halftime last Friday, Powell and Brown had 20 of Dayton’s 24 points.
“Anytime somebody’s leading scorer is doing that, we’re going to fix that,” Knutson said.
The Vaqueros held that tandem to six points in the second half, helped by four fouls on Powell, which Knutson said took away his aggressiveness driving to the basket. Knutson was most pleased that two of those fouls were charging fouls, praising his players for their defensive efforts.
Meanwhile, Fernley’s top two scorers, Sheldon Jacobson and Bryce Dunagan-Stephens, put up 24 and 19 points, respectively. The Vaqueros also outrebounded Dayton 31-17. Even though nobody grabbed more than six individually, every Fernley player had at least one.
That’s the kind of effort Knutson said they will need again this Friday.
“We've got to match their physicality,” he said. “We can’t engage in any of the shenanigans that they try to get us to engage in, and we’ve got to be ready to play.”
On the other hand, the Vaqueros made just 3-of-19 shots from 3-point range, after going 2-of-21 the first time the teams met.
“We're going to have to make six or seven of them, is my guess,” Knutson said.
Facing the Dust Devils for the third time in 34 days, Knutson said his team knows what kind of challenge awaits them on their way back up the postseason mountain.
“I think we're ready for a dogfight on Friday,” coach Cade Knutson said. “We always get their best effort, and it's an elimination game, so you're going to get everybody's 100%.”
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