Fallon junior Lea Williams dribbles around the Elko defense Friday.
Anthony Mori | Elko Daily Free Press
The Greenwave girls basketball team opened 3A East play with a weekend sweep in Elko County as it welcomes the three-time defending state champions Friday.
Fallon, which defeated Elko, 41-34, on Friday before taking down Spring Creek, 60-42, on Saturday, hosts Lowry at 6 p.m. on Friday at the Elmo Dericco Gymnasium and turns around to host Wooster on Saturday. Fallon then travels to league-leader Fernley on Wednesday.
In Friday’s win over the Indians, all but one scored as senior Vernita Fillmore, Lea Williams and sophomore Raegan Johnson each scored six points. Senior Brynlee Nichols, sophomore Kortnie Simper and freshman Amillya Bishop each had five points, and Karlie Simper added four. Junior Kylee Simper finished with three points and junior Janessa Bettencourt added one.
Fallon made 10 3-pointers, led by Williams and Bishop each with three and Karlie Simper with two.
Nichols led the team with nine rebounds, which tied a game high, and included four offensively. Kylee and Karlie Simper each had five rebounds, and Williams added four. Karlie Simper led the team in assists with six, while Fillmore led in steals with four.
In Saturday’s win over the Spartans, Kortnie and Karlie Simper accounted for almost half of the team’s points as each scored 14 points. Bishop scored 13 points, Fillmore added seven and Bettencourt had four.
BOYS BASKETBALL
For the first time since the 2020 state championship, Fallon defeated Elko, but it came at a cost.
The Greenwave, who defeated Elko to win back-to-back titles before the pandemic, came back in the second half, outscoring the Indians by 11 to escape with a 58-54 win Friday at Elko.
Fallon, though, lost one of its senior starters, Braden Sorensen, for the next couple of weeks and leading scorer, Calin Anderson, a sophomore, during the Elko game. Anderson returned to the lineup against Spring Creek on Saturday.
Junior Wyatt Peek and senior Trevor Hyde led the scoring efforts against Elko with Peek totaling 13 points and Hyde adding 12. Anderson scored 10 before leaving in the second half. Junior Barry Mitchell scored nine points all in the third quarter, while senior Koa Nihoa, junior Bransyn Wright and sophomore Caleb Edgmon each added four. Wright’s points all came in the fourth quarter.
The next day saw a different result as Spring Creek initiated the running clock in the third quarter before defeating Fallon, 62-32. The Spartans led 22-4 after the first quarter.
Anderson led the team in scoring with nine, Peek added eight and Mitchell had six. Hyde scored three points, and seniors Dru Mackay and Colin Shishido, and junior Brenan Alves each had two.
Fallon returns home Friday when it hosts Lowry, which defeated the Greenwave in last month’s Rail City Classic, before facing Wooster on Saturday. Fallon travels to Fernley on Wednesday.