Fallon’s Zoey Jarrett and her teammates face an uphill battle to qualify for the playoffs after the Northern 3A region administrators and athletic directors approved a modification last week.
The Lady Wave basketball team was dealt with a double dose of bad news Friday.
In an improved performance compared to the first meeting against No. 1 Lowry, Fallon fell to the Buckaroos in Winnemucca, 54-23, dropping to 1-4 against 3A East opponents.
The Northern 3A region’s administrators and athletic directors, per the NIAA, approved to update the playoff-qualifying criteria due to the pandemic postponing games that cannot be made up with only two weeks left in the regular season. Originally, the top team from the West and East get the auto-bid and bye followed by the next four best teams based on overall record, including crossover. Under the new change, the top four teams from each side make it, and the No. 1 teams do not get the bye.
How does this affect Fallon?
Under the original setup and if the season were to end last week, the Lady Wave advance to the playoffs after posting a 5-1 record against the 3A West. Now, with Fallon (1-3) sitting fifth in the 3A East, it will most likely need to at least split its two games against fourth-place Fernley (2-3), which split against Spring Creek and Elko over the weekend. Fallon will also need to win the rubber match against Dayton and split against Elko and Spring Creek on the road to end the season. Fallon travels to Fernley on Friday, hosts Dayton on Saturday and welcomes back Fernley on Monday in a make-up game. The season ends next weekend in Elko County.
The Greenwave boys, though, are in better shape and still sit in the top four. They began the second half of the division schedule on Tuesday at Lowry. Fallon travels to Fernley on Friday before hosting Dayton on Saturday for Senior Day. The Greenwave will end the season next weekend against Spring Creek and Elko.
Senior Day for the girls is before the 1 p.m. game on Saturday while the boys will be honored before their game, which is at 2:30 p.m.
The playoffs for both the girls and boys are Feb. 17-19 in Winnemucca. State is the following weekend at Cox Pavilion on the UNLV campus.
