Lady Wave clinches

It wasn’t the most efficient game, but the Fallon girls basketball team clinched its berth into the Northern Division I-A postseason.

The Lady Wave dropped Truckee, 48-33, on Friday, keeping pace with Elko for second place, but more importantly locked up its playoff bid. With the win, Fallon improves to 10-2 in league and 13-7 overall.

Truckee, meanwhile, falls to 3-9, 5-12 and is on the cusp of being eliminated from playoff contention.

Lowry (12-0, 17-4), meanwhile, also clinched its berth in the regional tournament, which will be hosted by Fallon on Feb. 20-21 at the Elmo Dericco Gym.

With a win Friday at home against Dayton (0-11, 2-16), the Lady Wave is also still in the running for the No. 1 seed, but Lowry must lose twice to force at least a two-way tie. The Buckaroos host Fallon on Saturday and also still must play Elko (10-2, 14-8) and Spring Creek (7-5, 10-11).

Elko also clinched its trip to the postseason, while Spring Creek must win three of its next four. Two losses by Spring Creek coupled with South Tahoe (5-7, 8-13) winning out, would put the Spartans and Vikings in a tie for fourth.

Against Truckee, Fallon used two big quarters — the first and third — to provide all the cushion it needed in securing their sixth straight win.

The Lady Wave jumped out to a 13-7 first-quarter lead, but struggled in the second period scoring only five points. Truckee, meanwhile, also couldn’t find its groove as the Wolverines tallied five points, and only recorded more than 10 points once.

Fallon, though, exploded for 22 points in the third quarter to push its lead to 40-27.

Senior guard Ali Tedford led the Lady Wave with 16 points, while junior forward Megan McCormick added 15. Maggie O’Flaherty chipped in with eight and Madison Perazzo had seven.

Sydney Mock, playing with a sprained wrist, led Truckee with 12 points including three 3-pointers, and Katie Fisher tallied nine.