Fallon's Maggie O'Flaherty drives against Damonte Ranch during the Lady Wave's 40-36 win on Friday in Reno.
It was a solid weekend for the Fallon girls basketball team.
The Lady Wave went 2-1 at the Elite Varsity Tournament in Reno at McQueen High School and avenged a loss to Division I foe Damonte Ranch in the process.
Fallon dropped the Mustangs, 40-36, on Friday and capped the night with a 49-31 win over DIII Pershing County. The Lady Wave, though, ran out of gas on Saturday and stumbled to a 50-37 loss to McQueen.
“They played well,” Fallon coach Anne Smith said. “When our defense is on, we are going to be hard to beat.”
Against Damonte Ranch, junior forward Megan McCormick led the Lady Wave with a team-high 13 points, while senior guard Ali Tedford and junior forward Madison Perazzo each added nine.
Smith said her club jumped out to an early lead and held off a late rally by Damonte Ranch.
In their previous meeting on Dec. 5, Fallon’s defense, as they were on Friday, was stingy. It was the offense that couldn’t find its rhythm.
But the tables turned at last weekend’s tournament as the offense found consistency behind the trio of McCormick, Tedford and Perazzo.
“They had a hard time with our full-court press,” Smith said.
In Fallon’s second game, the Lady Wave again jumped out to an early lead, but Pershing County was denied any chance of a rally.
Tedford led Fallon with a team-high 14 points including two 3-pointers, whole McCormick added seven and Janelica Galera and Shelby Smith each added six.
“I was happy with what I saw on defense on Friday,” Anne Smith said. “We got to work on finishing.” On Saturday, though, the Lady Wave’s legs ran a bit slower as the offense struggled to beat McQueen’s pressure defense.
McCormick spearheaded the offense with 13 points, while Tedford added 10 and Maggie O’Flaherty chipped in with six.
“Maybe they were tired, but I felt like we were slower on defense,” Smith added. “Our closeouts were slow and they were able to shoot over us. We just weren’t finishing.”
Fallon now prepares to jump back into its DI-A schedule on Friday with the home opener at 6 p.m. against Truckee. The Lady Wave returns to the court on Saturday at 4 p.m. for a nonleague game against Douglas.
Boys split at tourney
The Fallon boys basketball team notched its second win of the season with a 56-48 victory over Shasta (Calif.) on Monday at the Trojan Toss Up tournament in California.
Fallon (0-2 Northern Division I-A, 2-7 overall) trailed 13-8 after the first quarter, but rallied to take a 26-24 halftime lead. The Greenwave extended the lead to 38-30 after three quarters and held on for the win.
The Wave opened the event with an 80-25 loss to Oak Ridge (Calif.) on Saturday.
Fallon didn’t score more than eight points in any quarter, while the Trojans jumped out to a 19-8 lead after the first quarter and led 34-16 at halftime.
Oak Ridge stepped on the gas in the third period outscoring the Wave 29-4 to push its lead to 63-20.
Fallon played Pleasant Valley (Calif.) on Tuesday, but results were not available at press time. The boys open their home slate at 7:30 p.m. on Friday against Truckee.