Fallon girls basketball drops pair in playoff race

The Lady Wave basketball team needed to finish its crossover schedule with a win to keep its playoff hopes alive.

Instead, Fallon fell to South Tahoe, outscoring the hosts after the first quarter Saturday, and it may need help from other teams to continue their season later this month.

“We were hoping to get that win against Tahoe because those crossover games count for two for us,” Fallon coach Kevin Wickware said.

If the season ended today, Fallon would be out of the postseason. But picking up a win over Dayton this weekend and splitting with Elko and Spring Creek next weekend plus seeing North Valleys wrap up the 3A West, Fallon would be able to slip into the final playoff position.

But it all starts with Fallon taking care of business over the final four games.

Fallon hosts first-place Fernley at 6 p.m. on Friday before traveling to Dayton on Saturday. Fallon hosts Elko and Spring Creek next week.

“Our first goal is we have to split this week,” Wickware said. “If we can split this weekend, then we can move to next weekend. We can't worry about what other people do.”

Fallon beat Dayton in the first meeting last month but lost a close battle with Spring Creek. Fernley and Elko are two of the top teams in the region and were able to race out to a big lead early in their first meetings with the Wave.

“We did play Spring Creek pretty well the first time. Elko’s going to be good so hopefully we can handle their pressure a little bit,” Wickware said. “We struggled against Elko on rebounding so hopefully we can control their big players.

“Fernley is playing pretty good basketball right now. All we can hope is to play with some confidence and take care of the basketball and give ourselves a chance against them.”

The 53-40 South Tahoe loss, though, stings because the Vikings jumped out to a 17-2 lead after the first quarter.

“It would have been a much different game. We struggled executing the game plan in that quarter,” Wickware said. “We struggled in the first quarter. Scoring two points isn’t going to help you. We handled the press pretty well and we had good shots. The shots didn’t fall in the first quarter.”

After the quarter, the shots started to fall but Fallon couldn’t overcome the 15-point deficit.

Junior Madsyn Moyle led the team with eight points, and senior Liliana Bettencourt had seven. Juniors Zoey Jarrett and Skai Shults each had five.

In Fallon’s 57-24 loss to Lowry on Friday in Fallon, the Lady Wave had 34 turnovers, more than 10 above their season average.

“We just struggled for the first three quarters until they took the press off,” Wickware said. “You’re going to take these big lumps. As long as you learn from it, you’re good. We do go through stretches where we see how good we can play. We have some high peaks and some very low valleys. As long as we level those out, we will be consistent with what we’re doing.”

Sophomore Vernita Fillmore led the team with seven points and Shults had four.

Girls: 3A North (East) standings

(League, overall)

Fernley: 7-0, 24-2

Lowry: 5-1, 18-2

Elko: 4-3, 11-6

Sp. Creek: 3-4, 9-10

Fallon: 1-5, 10-12

Dayton: 0-7, 6-12