For the fourth consecutive season, the Fernley High School girls basketball team is back at the 3A State Tournament, and this time they get to chase a title on their home court.
After a 58-38 loss to Fallon in the championship game of the Northern 3A Regional Tournament at Wooster last Saturday, the Vaqueros enter this weekend’s State Tournament as the No. 2 seed from the North. Fernley will face Southern champion Virgin Valley in the first game of the tournament Friday at 3 p.m. Fallon will play Boulder City, the No. 2 seed from the South, at 6:20 p.m. and the winners will play for the State championship at noon Saturday.
The Vaqueros were the No. 1 seed for last week’s Regional Tournament and qualified for the State Tournament by winning 75-11 over Incline Monday night and 54-18 over Elko Friday night.
But in last Saturday’s championship game, Fallon dominated the last three quarters to take the regional title with a 58-38 win.
With the game tied 10-10 after the first quarter, Fallon took control with a 12-0 run in the second quarter and blew the game open with a 15-2 run to start the third quarter.
After Justice Martell-Artiaga gave Fernley a 13-10 lead with a 3-pointer 11 seconds into the second quarter, Amillya Bishop scored the first two of 12 straight points for the Greenwave, while Fernley went scoreless for more than five minutes. Fallon’s Kortnie Simper had seven points in that second-quarter run, then she hit a 3-pointer for the first points of the third quarter run that pushed the Greenwave lead to 39-19. Fernley never got closer than 16 points the rest of the way.
“Our wheels just fell off,” Fernley coach Ralph Dunn said. “Panic set in and we just had way too many turnovers and against a team like Fallon. We just couldn’t get into any rhythm on both ends of the court.”
Martell-Artiaga led the Vaqueros with 15 points and Irene Brown added eight.
As much as they struggled on Saturday, by contrast the Vaqueros were every bit as sharp the night before in blowing out Elko.
The Vaqueros led 10-0 and 16-2 before ending the first quarter with a 21-6 advantage and led 36-7 at the half.
“We came out with a lot of energy and the girls just played awesome,” Dunn said. “I thought it was one of our best performances this year and the atmosphere was great.”
Irene Brown led the Vaqueros with 11 points, and both Taylor Tollestrup and Lillianna Young had 10 each.
Dunn said the Vaqueros are going back to the drawing board this week to prepare for Virgin Valley which, like Fallon, likes to pressure the ball on defense.
“We got knocked down and now it’s time to dust ourselves off and compete,” Dunn said.
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