Fallon's Jace Harmon moves the ball around the perimeter as he prepares for a shot at the basket.
In a big rivalry win, the Greenwave boys’ basketball team defeated the Fernley Vaqueros Tuesday night.
Fallon won 55-34.
The Greenwave took an early lead in the first quarter, reaching five points before a free throw from Rei Robinett put Fernley on the board. Fallon continued to lay on defensive pressure, halting the Vaqueros’ advance until the quarter ended 13-8. The second quarter was another Greenwave push, holding Fernley to three baskets; a three-pointer by Josh Kirk with another basket by Russell Ortiz closed the half 29-15.
The Vaqueros, however, came back in the second half. They broke through Fallon’s defense in the third quarter, closing to trail 11 points, 37-26. The final quarter saw both teams giving their all; though Fernley tried to close in, Fallon maintained a 10 to 20-point lead the whole period.
Fallon coach Chelle Dalager said the game was awesome. She said the defense did its job well; the coach said they tried to focus on pinning Zach Burns down and keeping him under control as one of Fernley’s stronger players.
“I really attribute our success to the fact that we are an amazing team together,” she said. “There isn’t a team in our league that puts their team on the floor, we rotate pretty much everybody off the bench and they do a great job with what they’re supposed to do.”
Elijah Jackson and John Cooley led the Greenwave with 10 points each, Cooley scoring two three-pointers. Hayden Strasdin was right behind them with nine points; Trey Rooks scored seven, then Thomas Steele and Christian Nemeth each scored six.
Everyone on the team contributed with most of the players scoring multiple baskets.
Dalager said several teams this season have focused their top defenders on covering Jackson. She said this is good for them, both as a testament to how good a player Jackson is, but also because it opens the way for the rest of Fallon’s players to get to the basket without the top defender.
Steele and Rooks were also defensive leaders for Fallon, posting six and five rebounds respectively. In all the team totaled 30 rebounds, 14 assists and 15 steals.
“I’m real proud of their defense,” Dalager said.
The Greenwave takes on Truckee tonight in Truckee. Dalager said they needed to come ready to play with defensive intensity. She said they couldn’t look past Truckee and had to focus on each game as it comes.