Boys' Basketball: Douglas runs over Fallon

The Douglas boys' basketball team completed a sweep of its home tournament, the Carson Valley Classic, for the second consecutive year while improving to 5-0 on the season Saturday afternoon, breezing past Fallon 83-47 in Minden.

The Tigers put on a rebounding clinic, carrying a 28-13 advantage off the glass while handing the Greenwave its first loss of the season..

It was also the first time Fallon had been held below 75 points in its six games this season.

"I was very proud of our kids on defense," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "We knew their shooters were very capable, especially their No. 34 (Derrick Stanford).

"Our kids were just on him all night. We were getting our hands up every time down the floor on defense and we weren't letting them come to us. We made sure we were attacking."

Although Fallon was coming off a relatively easy win over McQueen, currently ranked No. 1 in Northern Nevada by the Reno Gazette-Journal, the night before, Douglas left little doubt from the beginning.

The Tigers won the opening tip, scored on a Matt Thomas drive just nine seconds into the game and ran up a 9-0 lead over the first three minutes.

The Greenwave managed only two first-quarter field goals as Douglas pushed ahead for a 26-7 lead.

Things never got much closer as Douglas built leads as large as 34 points on two occasions before pushing ahead for the final 36-point deficit with a 9-0 run to close out the game.

"It's still game 5 if the season," Thacker said. "We have to attack each game with a mental approach of looking toward the long run. It becomes a question of what is the thing we can focus on in this game that is going to make us better in the bigger picture.

"I was pleased with how we stepped it up defensively over these last two games, but we still have to concentrate on making good decisions and staying in front of guys without fouling. I saw some fouls that just weren't smart on defense for us. That will be huge for us, solving that out this season.

Junior Trevor Shaffer led Douglas in scoring for the first time of his varsity career, pouring in 16 points for Douglas.

Hunter Myers, who was named the tournament MVP and finished in double-figures during each game of the tournament, added 14.

Jake Tessmann scored eight, Austin Neddenriep, also an all-tournament honoree, had seven, as did Connor Hughes, and Garrett Getty had six.

Matt Wylie scored five and Matt Thomas, Kameron Van Winkle and Theo Denson each had four.

"I thought we had two good nights in a row," Thacker said. "Now we want to keep that intensity going. You can't just say, 'Let's play hard every night.' It has to be something you do. That's where we're trying to get.

"We can't ease up. We're concentrating on just getting little things better and putting a complete package together. It's a marathon to put a complete package together as a team, and that's our focus this year.

"We have plenty of leadership on this team, but we have to stay focused. It's a long season and we constantly have to be building toward the type of team we want to be when the playoffs roll around."

Douglas (5-0, 2-0 Sierra League) hosts Wooster Tuesday night. Tipoff will be at 7:30 p.m.