ELKO — It was a tale of two halves and also a tale of two games.
The Elko boys basketball team rallied back to put away Fallon 61-37 with a solid second half after the Greenwave tied the game at 27 just before halftime. The Indians were also left scratching their heads a little bit after scoring 59 points against Fernley in the first half Friday and then needing four quarters to equal that total Saturday.
“We played a good game (Friday) night, and we struggled to turn the page for tonight’s game,” Elko coach Chris Klekas said. “We had a good second half. We came out and responded.”
The game started really well for Fallon, which jumped out to a 7-2 lead after Clay Davidson buried a 3-pointer.
The Indians, however, responded with a 10-0 run sparked by a Tim Meo basket.
Marshall Dumas followed with a jump stop and a little floater, and then Brandon Jenkins and Brian Pearson hit consecutive 3-pointers for a 12-7 lead.
It looked like Elko had found its groove and would pull away like it had done against so many other Northern I-A league foes this season.
Fallon, of course, was not going to let this one be so easy. The Wave came right back as Tyler Bagby knocked down two treys between another Jenkins 3. In the second quarter, the Greenwave tied the score at 15 after two free throws by Bagby. The rest of the first half went back and forth.
Bagby and Jenkins exchanged another set of 3-pointers, and Fallon’s Beau Marshall buried a triple to tie the score once again.
Late in the first half, Fallon’s Tristan Salazar grabbed an offensive rebound for a putback to tie the score at 27-all at the break.
“Effort,” coach Klekas said of his team’s two different halves. “I think in the second half we eliminated their easy baskets, rebounded the ball better and had our hands up a lot more.”
Elko opened up a lead for good at the outset of the second half. The Indians started the third quarter on a 9-0 run and this time Fallon did not have an answer. Nathan Klekas started the rally with a 3-pointer, and Meo tipped in a missed shot. Jenkins and Pearson capped it off with a couple of buckets to make it 36-27.
Marshall finally broke through for the Wave with a deep jump shot just inside the arc, but baskets were few and far between for Fallon in the second half. The Wave scored only 10 points after halftime.
The Indians closed out the third quarter on a 9-2 run, which was highlighted by a 3-pointer by Chad Schumacher, and Elko never looked back.
“We got the ball inside more. I thought we missed Brian and Tim a lot in the first half,” coach Klekas said of the offensive adjustments after the break. “We got the ball into them more in the second half, but overall, we need to do a better job. We’ve got to do a better job getting the posts the ball, and they need to do a better job finishing. We were more focused and played with more urgency in the second half.”
Pearson scored six of his 11 points in the fourth quarter, while Meo had six of his eight in the second half. Jenkins led all scorers with 13 points, while Dumas and Klekas each had 12. Bagby led Fallon with 11 points.
The Indians improve to 17-2 overall and 10-0 in league play with six regular season games left on the schedule.
Fallon drops to 4-6 in league after dropping both games this weekend.