Fernley is 0-5 against Boulder City since December of 2016 but things could change on Friday. The Fernley Vaqueros will head out on the road to challenge the Boulder City Eagles at 8:00 p.m. Fernley is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 56.4 points per game this season.
Last Friday, Fernley ended up a good deal behind Spanish Springs and lost 60-44. The matchup marked the Vaqueros' lowest-scoring game so far this season.
Despite the loss, Fernley had strong showings from Sheldon Jacobson, who went 7 for 14 on his way to 20 points and seven rebounds, and Bryce Dunagan-Stephens, who posted 17 points. That was a full 45.5% of Fernley's points, marking the third time in a row he's put up more than a third of the team's points.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Boulder City). They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat Doral Academy Red Rock 77-46. The Eagles have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won three contests by 27 points or more this season.
Boulder City's win came from a few key players Fernley will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Branch Danko, who had nine points and five rebounds. The dominant performance gave him a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Sean Pendleton, who posted nine points and six assists.
Boulder City was working as a unit and finished the game with 18 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Boulder City's win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 4-1. They've dominated over that stretch too, winning by an average of 31 points. As for Fernley, their defeat ended an eight-game streak of away wins dating back to last season and brought them to 4-3.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as Fernley and Boulder City are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Fernley hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 56.4 points per game. However, it's not like Boulder City struggles in that department as they've been averaging 71.8 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Fernley came up short against Boulder City in their previous matchup back in December of 2023, falling 75-63. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Boulder City's Luke Wright, who went 8 of 14 on his way to 26 points. Now that Fernley knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.
