Boys basketball: Fallon holds on to beat Lowry

The Greenwave boys basketball team picked up a critical league win on the road before traveling to one of the region’s best teams.

After defeating Spring Creek in overtime the week before, Fallon handed Lowry a 62-50 loss on Friday in Winnemucca, improving to 2-1 in the 3A East (9-9 overall). The Greenwave traveled on Wednesday to Fernley, which is riding an eight-game winning streak, defeating every opponent by double-digits. Fallon visits Dayton on Friday.

“That’ll be a tough matchup. They pass the ball really well. They’re not ball hogs,” Fallon coach Chelle Dalager said. “They move the ball really well. They have a ton of experience. They play AAU basketball in the summer and they play together. They’ve got some kids with really good fundamentals.”

While Friday’s win gave Fallon its second in a row, Dalager knows this week’s challenge in Fernley will be a good test. The Vaqueros easily defeated Elko and Spring Creek last weekend and are poised to make another run in the postseason after losing last year’s state semifinal on a last-second 3-pointer.

Dalager said the key will be matching up against Fernley’s guards – Cade Knutson runs a five-guard lineup – and limiting the turnovers against the Vaqueros’ press.

“If we can handle their pressure and eliminate our turnovers, we should be OK,” she said. “They don't have the size. We’ll match up evenly with the guards. If our post players can continue scoring like that (in the Lowry and Spring Creek wins), then we’ll be in good shape. We just have to manage the turnovers because they’re shifty. They have really good defenders who are super aggressive and get after (the ball).”

Friday’s game against Lowry started with the Buckaroos scoring the first four points on baskets by Jaden Jimenez and Kasyn Garner. Garner netted seven of Lowry’s nine points in the opening eight minutes. A 3-point field goal by Luke Glinka gave Fallon at 5-4 and the Greenwave extended the advantage to 11-6 off of steals and layups from Brady Alves and Baylor Sandberg.

Alves led all scorers with 21 points and Braden Sorenson added 11 points. Trevor Hyde and Sandberg each scored nine points, Glinka seven, Carter Paul four, Calin Anderson three and Wyatt Peek two.

“We had very equally distributed scoring,” Dalager said. “They boxed out really well in the first half and that was the difference in the first half of the game with how hard they worked on rebounding.”

Fallon came out with the first nine points of the second quarter to build a 10-point lead at 19-9 when Garner stopped the run. Trailing 23-13, Lowry came back quickly with five straight points off a 3-pointer by Dempsey Jenkins and a bucket by Anthony Guzman.

However, Fallon found the momentum again as Alves tracked down a loose ball near the end of the half and hit a 3-pointer to give the Greenwave a 26-18 halftime lead. Alves had two 3-pointers in the second quarter.

Fallon grabbed a 14-point lead of the game at 38-24 off back-to-back 3-pointers from Sanberg and Alves. Lowry quickly cut the gap back to 38-28 on a putback basket by Garner and a steal and a steal and layup by Jimenez.

Every time the Buckaroos closed the gap, the Greenwave had an answer with buckets from Paul and Sandberg to push the lead to 47-31. The lead dropped back to 11 points at the end of the third quarter off a 3-pointer by Matthew Casalez and a basket by Garner.

Jenkins opened the fourth quarter with a steal and layup to get the lead under double figures, but was as close as Lowry got. Fallon built the lead back to 53-39 midway through the fourth quarter.

“(Lowry) just played super hard and didn’t quit. Sometimes, kids get a little lax, and see a double-digit lead and then slow down a little bit,” Dalager said. “We allowed them back in the game. I wasn’t worried about it. We stayed about 10 points away from them. We were able to sub.”

Garner led Lowry with 15 points, with Jimenez and Casalez joining him in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Jenkins contributed seven points, Guzman three and Kayd Garner two.

The LVN's Thomas Ranson contributed.