Joe Pyle looks to pass against Truckee on Friday.
TRUCKEE — The Truckee boys didn’t lose for a lack of hustle Friday night.
Visiting Fallon took advantage of its superior size and shooting accuracy to fend off a valiant third-quarter comeback en route to a 58-45 league win.
Fallon hosted Fernley on Tuesday but results were not available at press time.
“I thought they played hard. It’s the same Achilles we started with: We don’t have shooters,” said first-year Truckee coach Sky Nelson. “The shots are just not going down. We had a poor night shooting. But they played hard and were physical.”
After falling behind by 10 at the half and 13 in the opening minute of the third quarter, the Wolverines began to heat up and chip away at the lead.
A transition layup by senior Louden Smith to start the fourth quarter shaved the lead to four, at 45-41. But that was as close as Truckee got.
Fallon sophomore Connor Richardson answered with a 3-pointer off the bench, junior forward Jeff Evett made a baseline jumper, and Richardson hit another 3 to quickly stretch the lead back to 12.
Truckee managed just four points the remainder of the quarter as the Greenwave pulled away.
“They played us tough,” Fallon coach Brad Barton said of the Wolverines. “We knew coming up here to elevation and with them being at home that it would be no walk in the park. They have some good players too. We got some help with fresh legs off the bench. I was happy with our bench play.”
The Wolverines got off to a favorable start. They took an early 6-0 lead after a 3-pointer by Teagan Pado in the opening minutes and would have led at the end of the first quarter had Fallon senior Tristen Salazar not sunk an off-balance buzzer-beater from beyond half court.
Truckee coaches and players thought Salazar’s shot was late, but the officials saw it differently as Fallon gained its first lead of the game at 13-12.
“We were a little rusty,” Barton said. “We didn’t play much over Christmas break and it showed at the start.”
The Greenwave used their distinct size advantage in the post to build on their lead in the second quarter, which ended with the visitors up 31-21. Junior guard Nick Oberriter scored all nine of Truckee’s points in the quarter.
“We wanted to go to the post and get the ball inside as much as possible,” Barton said. “Once we started doing that we did well.”
“They’re a good team,” Nelson said of the Greenwave, who improved to 2-1 in Division I-A play and are 3-5 overall after a loss at Douglas on Saturday. “They have a good high-low game. We haven’t gotten there yet.”
Fallon senior Beau Marshall led all scorers with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Evett had 16 points and Richardson 11. Oberriter led Truckee with 13 points. Smith scored 12 and Diego Abundiz had eight.
The Wolverines, who lost 68-44 at Lowry on Saturday, are 0-4 in league play and 2-6 overall.