Bear Creek routs Carson boys

SPARKS - Bear Creek's David Nelson is a big, physical player. Carson High, at least on Thursday night, didn't play a physical game.

Advantage Nelson.

The 6-foot-7 junior center scored 18 points on a 9-for-10 effort from the field to lead Bear Creek to an easy 76-52 win over Carson at the annual Nugget Rail City Classic at Reed High School.

The loss dropped Carson to 3-5. The Senators play either El Camino or Reed today at 4:30 in their final game of the tournament.

"That's what we needed (to face a big player)," Carson coach Bruce Barnes said. "We didn't defend the post. It wasn't that he was that much bigger. He was physical, and we didn't want to play physical. We needed to be more physical and double-down with more urgency.

"That's a very good basketball team; very solid. They were hitting a lot of threes."

Nelson played a huge role when Bear Creek outscored Carson 18-2 in a 7 1/2 minute span at the end of the first quarter and the first 4:27 of the second quarter, which wiped out an early 12-11 Carson lead.

Bear Creek ended the first quarter with a 7-0 run, as Colin Allen (24 points) drained a three-pointer and a pull-up jumper, and Nelson scored on a driving lay-up.

Carson's Brian Welch (15 points) hit two free throws to open the second quarter, cutting the lead to 18-16. That's when Nelson took control, scoring eight of the game's next 10 points. All four buckets were within 3 feet of the basket. Justin Winger had the other Bear Creek score in the surge.

"He (Nelson) did a good job," Bear Creek coach Steve Hyatt said. "We thought we could hurt them inside because of the height advantage.

"We haven't had a lot of good starts this year. We're a team that usually plays better as the game goes along. They play very hard, and we did a good job of taking what they were giving us."

Welch's four straight points narrowed the gap to 36-20 at the half. Carson had nine second-quarter turnovers, and Bear Creek converted those into four baskets and nine points total.

Carson had some good stretches in the third quarter thanks to its trapping defense, but a 33 percent effort from the floor and a poor effort on the defensive glass (Bear Creek had a 15-7 rebound advantage, seven on the offensive end, enabled the eventaul winners to increase their lead to 54-33 after three.

"We had spurts where certain guys gave us a lot of energy," Barnes said. "Right now, guys are playing for minutes when we get to January."

Bear Creek's lead stayed at 21 through the first portion of the fourth quarter, as Allen scored nine points. Bear Creek took its biggest lead of the game, 73-44, with 3:05 remaining in the contest. Aromous Robinson led the 8-0 surge with a nifty three-point play and Allen drilled another three-pointer.

Barnes did acknowledge that the Senators played with a bit more fire in the second half, even though they were unable to cut into the early second-quarter lead that Bear Creek built up.

"We played with a sense of urgency in the second half," Barnes said. "We were complacent for too many long spells. It's too hard to dig yourself out of a big hole once you get behind."

Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1281.