Greenwave Girls Take on Lowry in Regional Semifinals Friday

All season long, almost everybody affiliated with Northern 3A basketball assumed the two State Tournament berths would come down to a four-way battle between Fernley, Fallon, Lowry, and North Valleys.

In Monday’s quarterfinal round, that’s exactly the way it shook out.

Fallon dominated Wooster 65-23 in the regional quarterfinals Monday night and advances to face Lowry in the regional semifinals at 3 p.m. Friday in Fernley. Lowry was the No. 3 seed from the Northern 3A East, and went on the road to beat South Tahoe Monday night, 45-38. On the other side of the bracket, North Valleys dominated Elko 56-34 and Fernley bet Hug 57-38.

Fernley will face North Valleys at 6:20 p.m. Friday in the other semifinal, with the two winners both advancing to the State Tournament next week in Las Vegas and squaring off Saturday for the regional title. As of Tuesday morning, the time of Saturday’s championship game had not been posted. 

The Greenwave earned the No. 1 seed for the regional tournament by finishing the regular season on an eight-game winning streak, punctuated with wins on Jan. 31 at defending state champion Lowry and on Feb. 7 at Fernley.

It was the defense that keyed those last three wins. At Lowry, the Greenwave held Britain Backus, the league’s leading scorer who averages more than 29 points per game, to 16, and allowed no one else to reach double figures. Fallon held Lowry to 18 percent shooting from the floor, just 11-of-40, and Backus made just 4 of her 14 field goal attempts.

Meanwhile, the Greenwave got balanced scoring, with Reagan Johnson leading the team with 11 points, 9 from Vernita Fillmore, 8 each from Karlie Simper and Kortnie Simper, and 7 from Amilya Bishop.

Last Wednesday in Dayton, the Greenwave allowed just six field goals in a 48-20 win at Dayton. Kortnie Simper scored 11 points to lead Fallon, with the rest of the scoring again spread out. Brynlee Nichols put in 9 points, and both Johnson and Bishop had 7.

That led to the first-place showdown in Fernley Friday night, where the Greenwave forced 40 Fernley turnovers, held the Vaqueros to 10 of 32 shooting from the floor, and punctuated the win by outscoring Fernley 19-3 in the fourth quarter.

Kourtnie Simper led Fallon with 12 points, Karlie Simper added 10, Fillmore scored 9, and Biship added 8.