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Truckee basketball: Girls eyeing regional playoff berth

Sylas Wright
swright@sierrasun.com
Shelby Brooks leads a fast break against Elko on Thursday.
Sylas Wright / Sierra Sun |

Northern Division I-A standings

Girls

1. Fallon 15-0

2. Lowry 10-3

3. Elko 9-3

4. Fernley 8-6

5. Truckee 6-6

6. Spring Creek 5-8

7. South Tahoe 4-10

8. Sparks 1-11

9. Dayton 1-12

Boys

1. Elko 13-0

2. Lowry 12-1

3. South Tahoe 9-5

4. Fernley 8-6

5. Fallon 6-9

6. Sparks 5-8

7. Spring Creek 5-9

8. Dayton 3-10

9. Truckee 0-13

TRUCKEE — The Truckee girls basketball team is right where it wants to be entering the final stretch of the regular season.

After nearly upsetting third-place Elko at home this past Thursday, the Wolverines pulled off a 57-54 overtime win at Dayton on Friday to maintain fifth place in the Northern Division I-A, at 6-6.

The top six teams advance to the regional championship tournament, which will be contested at North Valleys High School in Reno from Feb. 18-20.



“We want to try to shoot for the fifth spot, which will make it a little easier for us,” said Truckee coach Dave Shalvis, whose Wolverines have not made the regional tournament since the 2011-12 season.

Truckee gave Elko (9-3) all it could handle in a makeup game Thursday, scoring the first six points and never trailing in the first half. But the Indians edged ahead late in the third quarter and held on for the 49-43 win.



The Wolverines beat the Indians’ full-court press with regularity in the opening half, while senior point guard Sydney Mock scored eight points and dished out four assists, despite the visitors employing a box-and-one defense with Siana Carsrud draped on Mock. Junior forward Maddie Monson added eight points in the half, which ended with Truckee clinging to a 25-24 lead.

Play went back and forth in the third quarter, which was tied on five occasions before Elko ended with four straight points to take over the lead for the first time at 36-34.

The Indians scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to extend their lead to 41-34 with a 9-0 run. Truckee senior Adela Ortiz halted the run with a timely three-pointer, and Sara Sawyer followed with a bucket in the paint to trim the margin to two, 41-39. Elko outscored Truckee 8-4 in the final minutes to earn the win.

Shalvis was pleased with the performance of his team, which lost by nine points at Elko on Dec. 22.

“They played within themselves and didn’t try to do more than they needed to,” he said. “That seems to be our issue sometimes. They put everything on their shoulders instead of playing as a team.”

Sawyer finished with a team-high 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Mock added nine points, seven assists and 12 steals, Ortiz had nine points, and Monson had eight points and six rebounds. Guards Carsrud and Alicia Marin scored 13 points apiece to lead the Indians.

In contrast to the hot start against Elko, the Wolverines had a sluggish first half against Dayton (1-12) and found themselves trailing 12-11 at the end of the first quarter and 27-21 by the midway point.

“It was one of those games where we didn’t start out very well. We had weird nerves,” Shalvis said.

Truckee rebounded to outscore the hosts 15-8 in the third quarter. The Dust Devils scored 13 points to the Wolverines’ 12 in the fourth to force overtime, which Truckee won 9-6 to escape with the three-point victory.

Dayton senior guard Angela Sikora, whom Shalvis described as a “pure shooter” with range from outside, went off for a game-high 29 points. Sikora — the leading scorer in the Northern DIA, at 19.5 points a game — finished 7-of-19 on three-point attempts and was 8-of-24 from the floor.

Mock — the third-leading scorer in the league with a 14-point average — scored 24 to lead the Wolverines. “Sydney took control, driving and doing what she needed to do,” Shalvis said.

Monson contributed nine points and Ortiz scored seven, while Shalvis said Nunez played solid defense and Sawyer played well off the bench.

After Tuesday night’s road game at Fallon (15-0), the Wolverines host a makeup game against Spring Creek (5-8), which currently holds the sixth and final playoff berth, on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Truckee ends the regular season with home games against second-place Lowry (10-3) on Friday at 6 p.m. and fourth-place Fernley (8-6) on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Boys lose heartbreaker

Truckee’s boys, meanwhile, lost by a single point at Dayton, 55-54. Truckee also lost by a point in the teams’ first meeting on Jan. 16.

The Wolverines fell behind 16-8 after one quarter and trailed 28-21 at the half. They battled back in the third quarter to cut the deficit to two, 40-38, but ultimately could not make up the difference in the fourth.

Senior guard Jenner Tresan posted a team-high 23 points, while Gabe Cruz added 12 points and Justin Wadsworth scored 11.

Truckee ends the season with home games against Lowry on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Fernley on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.


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