Cold spell costs Fernley girls in State semifinal loss

Going more than eight minutes without a basket put the Fernley High School girls basketball team in a big hole in last Friday’s 3A state semifinal game against Virgin Valley.

A fourth-quarter comeback wasn’t quite enough to climb out of it.

For the second consecutive season, the Vaqueros were unable to overcome a large deficit against Virgin Valley in the 3A state semifinals, falling short of reaching the state championship game with a 76-65 loss. The Vaqueros got back within eight late in the game after trailing by as much as 63-35 in the third quarter. Last year, they lost 56-52 to the Bulldogs in the state semifinals after coming back from a 17-point deficit.

The Vaqueros ended the season with a 26-5 record.

“I couldn’t be prouder of what the girls accomplished this year and the effort they gave in the second half being down by so many,” Fernley coach Ralph Dunn said. “It’s not the way we wanted our season to end, but what a season we had.”

The game got away from the Vaqueros in the second quarter. After a basket by Taylor Tollestrup tied the game with 3:42 left in the first quarter, the Vaqueros didn’t make another basket until there was 2:59 left in the second quarter, a stretch of 8 minutes, 43 seconds. In between, they scored just three free throws and didn’t score at all for 6 minutes, 30 seconds.

By that time, Virgin Valley had built its lead to 34-14 and pushed it to 50-25 at halftime.

“We just had too many turnovers,” Dunn said. “That’s been haunting us all year long, and not scoring for an 8-minute stretch also contributed to the loss.”

Tollestrup scored 21 points for the Vaqueros, while Justice Martell-Artiaga added 19 and Zaelynn Wasson pitched in 14.

Dunn also said the experience of playing at home was special.

“What a great tournament we hosted,” he said. “It was a really nice atmosphere, and the gym was jam-packed both days. On behalf of the coaching staff and girls basketball team, I would really like to thank the community for all the support they’ve shown for the program. It was so awesome.”