Even after losing to Carson on Saturday, Reno can still win the Sierra League title, but its Northern 4A and state title hopes most likely vanished when center David Padgett went down with a serious knee injury in the third quarter.
Padgett, who has signed with Kansas, landed awkwardly on his right knee after going up for a rebound with the Senators' Ed Jaquette. Morse Burley Gymnasium hasn't been a kind venue for Padgett, who was taken to a hospital after Carson's 59-57 overtime win over the Huskies.
Last season, he sprained his knee against the Senators, missing the rest of his junior year, which then allowed Carson to run away with the league title. Now Padgett again may have played his last game of the season-- and of his prep career.
"It's just an unfortunate thing. I feel horrible," said coach Bruce Barnes, who's close friends with Padgett's father, Pete. "Hopefully, it's a sprain again. You don't want that to happen to the best player in the area who will go on to represent our region in the future."
David's injury put a damper on the Senators' win, but Jaquette was pleased that he was the main reason why Carson avenged an earlier loss to the Huskies. With Reno leading 57-56 in overtime, Jaquette hit the game-winning 3-pointer, his sixth of the game, with five seconds left.
"I just wanted to make up for that 2-for-12 performance I had the first time against them," said Jaquette, who scored 22 points. "This gives us confidence and some momentum going into the Hug game. There was no pressure on us because we had nothing to lose in this game. This doesn't change anything. We need to win next week."
The Senators (15-9 overall, 8-3 league) are tied for second with the Hawks, who host Carson next Friday night. Ricky Correlli had a game-high 25 points for the Senators, who had only five players score in the game. That was plenty, though, considering Jaquette was unconscious from outside.
"I didn't know if it was going to be Ed, but we knew that someone was going to get some 3's," Barnes said. "He had it going tonight. He's a streak shooter."
Before Padgett went down with a minute left in the third, the game was tied at 39 and the crowd was lively. Once he got injured, though, things went dull and didn't pick back up again until overtime.
"I think everybody was just feeling for David," Barnes said.
The 6-foot-11 center had 16 points at the time of his injury, but the Senators seemed to have contained him much better than in the two teams' first meeting on Jan. 18, when Padgett went off 33 points and blocked 10 shots in a 60-51 win.
"I thought we were doing a really good job on him," Jaquette said of Padgett, who had been averaging over 29.0 ppg. "I thought we were going to win if he did play (the rest of the game)."
The Senators led 46-41 with five minutes left in the game after a pair of Jaquette free throws. But the Huskies' Jeremy Lattin scored five of his eight points late in the quarter to send it into overtime tied at 51.
Reno (14-6, 8-2) led 57-56 with under a minute left in OT and Correlli missed a shot with 35 seconds left. The Huskies, though, were called for a 10-second call and Jaquette did the rest. Andy Bohm finished with eight points for the Senators.
Carson, which was coming off a loss at Wooster on Friday, can clinch the second seed and a home game in the first round of the Northern 4A playoffs with a win over the Hawks next Friday. If that happened and the Huskies were to either lose to Wooster or North Valleys next week, the Senators would win their second consecutive league title.
"It will be for second place," said Barnes, who was visibly concerned of Padgett's condition after the game and didn't want to even consider Reno not being able to win its final two games. "Tonight really didn't matter. First or second (place) is the same thing."