TRUCKEE — Truckee’s boys left their home gym with plenty of reasons to be optimistic Saturday.

Although the Wolverines fell short on the scoreboard, 50-44, they stormed back from an early deficit and challenged visiting Spring Creek in both teams’ league openers — only to fall short in the second half.

Truckee’s play was a marked improvement over its three previous games, when the team was outscored by a combined 79 points.

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“Absolutely. We’re super pumped about our performance for three and a half quarters,” said first-year Truckee coach Tom Cruz. “Spring Creek is a good team, and I thought our boys played with a lot of heart.”

After falling behind 12-2 in the opening minutes, the Wolverines came back with the help of back-to-back three-pointers by sophomore Gabe Cruz to take a one-point lead by the end of the first quarter, 19-18.

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Truckee maintained its momentum into the second quarter and carried a 30-24 lead into the half.

Things slowly unraveled from there, however, as the Spartans picked up their defensive pressure and outscored the hosts 15-6 in the third quarter and 11-8 in the fourth to pull away for the six-point win.

“I thought we handled their pressure a lot better (than previous games) and showed more composure. We’re still not all the way there. We had some turnovers. We have a young team and will get better every game,” coach Cruz said.

Senior guard Ryan Knudsen was the difference-maker for Spring Creek. Knudsen finished with a game-high 25 points, including four three-pointers and a 9-for-13 performance from the free-throw line. He also had a game-high seven steals, several of which came late in the contest.

Cruz hit three three-pointers en route to a team-high 15 points, while Ben Miller posted seven points, Jenner Tresan and Justin Wadsworth each had six, and Diego Abundiz had four.