Basketball: Wave boys split vs. Lowry, South Tahoe

The Greenwave boys basketball team picked up a key league win over Lowry before falling at South Tahoe as the playoff race heats up with only four league games left in the season.

After beating Lowry, 55-46, on Friday in Fallon, the Greenwave fell to South Tahoe, 69-62, losing two points in the standings. Fallon hosts first-place Fernley on Friday at 7:30 p.m. before traveling to Dayton on Saturday. Fallon finishes the season at home next weekend against Elko and Spring Creek.

“We need South Tahoe to win and if they win that division, it would knock out Wooster and North Valleys,” Fallon coach Chelle Dalager said about the playoff scenarios. “We have to beat Dayton and it would help if we can get Elko or Spring Creek at our place. A win over Fernley would be a happy day and give our kids more confidence.”

The Vikings lead the 3A West and if that trend continues, Fallon would be able to qualify for the postseason. But a lot can happen as there are still several crossover games, which count double, to be played. Elko, Spring Creek and Lowry of the 3A East and South Tahoe, Truckee and Sparks of the 3A West still have crossover games.

“When we play on all cylinders, we are pretty good. We just can’t put four quarters together,” said Dalager, whose team led Spring Creek by 17 and lost last month.

Dalager, though, needs her team to be consistent and adapt on defense to zone when man-to-man isn’t working. She said in the South Tahoe loss that the zone defense could have changed the outcome.

“We are terrible at zone and we are working on it. It’s almost like they want to match up,” she said. “Against South Tahoe, we really needed to play them in a zone and we couldn’t. We gave up too many points in man to man.”

Against Lowry, junior Brady Alves and sophomore Trevor Hyde each led the team in scoring with 14 points, and junior Carter Paul added nine. Alves and sophomore Braden Sorensen each hit a pair of 3-pointers. Junior Baylor Sandberg led the team with seven rebounds, including five on offense, Hyde had five, and Paul and Alves each added four. Alves also recorded eight steals and six assists.

Senior Shawn Alexander led Fallon with 23 points against South Tahoe, Alves had 16, including four 3-pointers, and Sorensen added 11. Alexander hit three 3’s and Sorensen had two and he also led the team in rebounding with six boards.