FERNLEY - A hot-shooting second quarter proved to be the difference Tuesday night as the Lady Vaqueros won their first-round Northern 3A playoff game against visiting Dayton.
Fernley outshot the Dust Devils 25-8 in the second period and then withstood a furious Dayton rally in the second half for a 63-49 win.
The Vaqueros (15-12) play Spring Creek at 7 p.m. Friday night in Winnemucca, and Lowry faces Truckee in the other game. Dayton ends the season at 7-19.
Fernley's fullcourt press and aggressive trapping prevented Dayton from scoring in the final three minutes of the first quarter and the first 5:23 of the second period.
"We got momentum and good pressure on defense," Fernley coach Ralph Dunn said.
He said Fernley's intensity was good, and the boisterous home crowd pumped up the girls.
"It's nice to have the crowd behind us," Dunn added.
After Fernley entered the second half with a 15-9 lead, the Vaqueros pumped in 17 consecutive points. Becky Murphy, Fernley's leading scorer, worked the inside for six points, while teammates Heather Mathews and Kailauni Harry were active from the free throw line.
Murphy finished the game with 15 points, and Harry added 12 including a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
"Their offense was on fire," Dayton coach Shari Andreasen said.
The second quarter became quite physical, and she said her players showed their frustration with some of the calls.
That frustration, though, led to numerous missed shots and turnovers.
"But we're learning to play through the frustration," she added.
During halftime Andreasen settled down her young squad and refocused Dayton on its game.
As a result, Dayton set the tempo and played evenly with Fernley in the third quarter and outscored the Vaqueros 18-9 in the final period.
"We picked up our defense," Andreasen said.
Dayton also relied on Rebecca Monzello's scoring in the fourth quarter. The 5-foot-11 center scored 17 points in the fourth quarter including six free throws and finished the game with 29 points.
"She brought us back in," Andreasen said of the Dayton junior.
Monzello, whose persistence from the floor impressed Dunn, accounted for all of Dayton's points in the second quarter.
"She handles the ball well and dribbles well," he said.
And her aggressiveness along the baseline also sent her to the free throw line 17 times.
Dunn also felt some frustration in the second half, especially when Dayton came back from a 27-point deficit.
Fernley's offense hurried its shots and took a handful of off-balance perimeter shots.
"Our girls thought they had it in the bag. Since everything they shot in the second quarter went in, they were thinking they could do it for the rest of the game," Dunn said.
Brittney Hill, who blistered the nets for 40 points against Fernley earlier in the season, sunk a trio of treys in the third quarter, but Fernley countered with Mathews 3-pointer and scoring from four other players.
Andreasen said Fernley did a good job of double teaming Hill, who was limited to nine points.