Wave guard Dylan Ridenour pulls up during Fallon's 66-43 loss to Elko on Friday.
It was there, then in a flash it was gone.
A third quarter explosion doomed the Fallon boys basketball as the Greenwave lost 66-43 to Elko in the first round of the Northern Division I-A playoffs on Friday at the Elmo Dericco Gym.
The Indians capped its perfect league season with a 55-31 thumping over Lowry in Saturday’s regional championship game.
The Wave, meanwhile, played inspired throughout the first half in front of near full house. Clay Davison and Jeff Evett ignited Fallon’s bombardment from the perimeter as the Wave’s second-quarter rally sliced Elko’s lead to 31-29.
Davison drilled four 3-points in the first half, while Evett added 12 points. Davison finished with a team-high 16 and Evett had 14.
“It’s easy when you make shots,” Fallon coach Brad Barton said. “That is basically what got us through that first half. Guys were moving without the basketball, sliding into open spots and hitting shots.”
Elko, though, responded in kind in the third thanks to the league’s best player, Nate Klekas. He scored eight of the game’s next 11 points to push the Indians’ lead to 39-32. Klekas finished with a game-high 24 points.
He was also a monster on the boards, ferociously grabbing rebounds, moving defenders at ease and charging to the basket with force.
Riding Klekas’ hot hand, the Indians showed why they one of the favorites for the state title. One example of Klekas’ dominance came in the fourth quarter.
He raced back on defense, blocked Fallon’s Dylan Ridenour’s shot with one hand, maintained possession and passed the ball to a teammate while falling out of bounds.
“He’s a competitor,” Elko coach Chris Klekas said of his son. “He did a good job in the second half, and really the whole team did.”
Elko’s defense tightened and shut down Davison and Evett, while Fallon scored just four points in the third quarter and 14 in the half. The Indians’ offense, meanwhile, rattled off 21 points to take a commanding 52-33 lead into the fourth quarter.
“I strongly dislike losing and I didn’t want to lose tonight,” Nate Klekas said. “We knew it was a 32-minute game and we got a nice little talking to at halftime. If we wanted to go to Vegas, we knew we had to come out and play better in the second half.”
Elko appeared poised to blowout Fallon in the first quarter as the Indians used an 11-2 run to take a 13-4 lead.
The Wave, though, found their groove when Evett hit a jumper followed by a 3 from Davison as Fallon trailed 17-11.
In the second quarter, however, Davison and Evett went to work igniting the crowd with pinpoint shooting.
“It was a crazy atmosphere and tons of energy,” Evett said.
Evett hit a pair of jumpers to open the period and Davison drained a 3 to cut the lead to 23-18. Davison wasn’t done as the 6-foot-6 junior buried consecutive 3s including one with an off-the-ball foul resulting in a layup by Taylen Cordes to cut the lead to 28-26.
Evett then pulled up and ripped a 3 from about 22 feet to give Fallon its first lead since 4-2 in the first quarter. Klekas, though, answered with a 3 with 15 seconds left in the half to give Elko a 31-29 lead at the break.
“I hit one, I felt good, then I hit two and I was on fire,” Davison said. “I hit one I probably shouldn’t of have shot.”
Even though Klekas tallied 12 points in the first half, he was held in check on the boards and was unable to dominate. Fallon’s defense forced the Indians to play from the outside limiting Elko to one shot per possession.
“They made shots and when you make shots good things happen,” Chris Klekas said.