BY JOEY CRANDALL
Nevada Appeal News Service
MINDEN " Things have looking pretty good in Churchill County lately. The Fallon Greenwave boys basketball team has been the surprise of the Northern 4A so far this season, rising to the No. 4 ranking in the Sierra Nevada Sports Media Polls and breezing through the first-half of the Sierra League season with its lone blemish coming at the hands of top-ranked Manogue.
The picture got a little better for Fallon Friday night as it picked up a 57-45 victory on the road against a talented Douglas squad, setting the Greenwave up with its next four games at home.
Fallon got 48 of its points from Garrett Adams (27) and Dexter Daum (21), getting the distance it needed with a 10-0 run late in the third quarter. Prior to that, Douglas had closed the gap to one at 32-31.
"We just keep preaching to the boys, especially on the road with a good crowd, that they are going to make their runs," Fallon coach Corey Williams said. "An athletic team like that is going to make some great things happen defensively and we just have to have poise when they make their runs " kept running our stuff, not trying to get outside of what we do."
Trailing 42-33 heading into the fourth, Douglas kept Fallon off the scoreboard for the next 4 minutes, 32 seconds. The only problem was that Fallon's 1-3-1 zone kept Douglas in check as well, though, giving up just four points during the same stretch.
In the meantime, the two teams combined for nine turnovers. For the quarter, they combined for 18.
A 3-pointer from Adams with 3:28 left put Fallon up 45-37 and an Adams layup in transition with 2:24 left gave the Greenwave a 10-point lead. That served to be Fallon's final field goal of the night as the Greenwave put the game away on 10 made free throws over the final minute and a half.
"We tried not to give it away," Williams said. "We were throwing the ball around, bouncing it off of noggins and so on. To me, the game was won with our rebounds. We rebounded very well and that's something that hasn't gone so well the last couple of games. Our focus was just better tonight."
Fallon came out playing an up-tempo game and quickly built an 11-4 lead on six points from Daum, a 3-pointer from Adams and a layup from Anthony Tisdale.
"Fallon, give them credit," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "They came in and smacked us right in the mouth from the start."
Douglas slowed down the pace after a timeout and started getting some stops defensively. Parker Robertson hit the back end of a pair of free throws, Tim Rudnick hit a 3-pointer and Cale Pete scored inside the paint to close the gap to one at 11-10.
Fallon answered with a 4-0 run on baskets from Adams and Daum, stretching the lead back out to 15-10 to close out the first quarter.
At one point in the game, Adams and Daum had combined for 34 of the team's 36 points. The duo also went a stretch of 20 consecutive minutes where they were the only Greenwave players to put points on the board.
"We'll take it, they are our main scorers, there's no secret to that," Williams said with a laugh. "Usually we are a little bit more balanced than that, but when you look at the pressure and the trapping we were seeing tonight, they are going to be handling the ball the most and it takes away some of your inside game."
Fallon pushed its lead to 10 through three minutes in the second, but Douglas came back with an 11-3 run, during which James McLaughlin accounted for seven points and Rudnick had the other four, to close out the half trailing only 26-23.
McLaughlin led the Tigers on the night with 15 points while Rudnick finished with 12.
Douglas kept some of its momentum going to start the third quarter, pushing the score to 32-31 with a 4-0 run with 3:51 left. As was the case for most of the night, though, Fallon came up with an answer " this time with the 10-0 stretch that ended up being more or less the difference in the game.
"I think we relaxed a bit," Thacker said. "We had a little run going and thought we were doing all right and then we let up a little bit. A team like that, they are 7-1 now, they knew what kind of game this was.
"They kept their composure. It was on our home court, they knew the home team is always going to go on some runs, and they continually had an answer for us."
Fallon (15-3 overall, 7-1 Sierra League) got three points from Tisdale in the game and two each from Russell Smith, Tyler Hubbard and Tyler Johnson.
Douglas is beginning to approach the "must-win" stage with a 3-5 league record (6-15 overall).
"Obviously now it is the second half of the season and we have to avenge some of our losses," Thacker said. "Tonight was one of those that we wanted."
The Tigers got eight points from Robertson, four from Austin Neddenriep and two each from Luis Pina-Duarte, Nick Hales and Cale Pete.
- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.