Second quarter run propels Carson girls to win
Dave Price
A little bit of defensive pressure in the second quarter helped spark the Carson High School girls basketball team to a 60-42 victory at home against Wooster Tuesday night.
The Senators turned to a zone press in the second quarter and managed to turn a close struggle into a 15-point halftime lead that put them on track to victory in a showdown between Sierra League leaders at Morse Burley Gymnasium.
"This was big," Carson coach Alana Williams said.
Yes it was. By winning, Carson improved to 4-0 in league (12-6 overall) and remained tied for first-place with Reno, a 54-40 winner over Douglas on Tuesday.
Nicole Scott scored 10 of her game-high 18 points in the first quarter to help Carson jump out to a 13-5 lead. Wooster (3-1 league, 14-6 overall) rallied to make it a five-point game, only to see the Senators turn up the defensive heat.
"We were playing man, but we saw they were having trouble handling the ball so we decided to press them," said senior guard Ciarra Christian. "That's when we went to the 2-2-1 (press) and that worked out good."
Christian helped apply the backbreaker with a pair of breakaway layups, both coming off steals by fellow senior guard Tabitha Adams, as the Senators exploded to take a 36-21 halftime lead. Adams finished the game with 12 points and Christian 11.
"I thought that was the game right there," Wooster coach Jack Smith said. "We got it to within five, then all of sudden, I looked up and it was 15 again. Carson was working real hard, but I also thought we got careless and started trying to do things on our own, and you can't do that."
The Senators didn't let up after the intermission. Adams connected on a 3-pointer and Christian converted a three-point play to push the lead to 45-26. Wooster got back to within 17 points early in the fourth quarter, but the comeback bid was cut short when Carson answered with another run of its own. Katie Kotter drove for a layup, assisted by Sarah Johnston, then Rachel Winters blocked a shot on the defensive end, leading to a Liz Rankl layup and Rosella Nunez drove for a left-handed layup as Carson extended its lead to 58-36 with 3:26 remaining.
Wooster was led offensive by Kirti Kenyi and Rosie Hobron with 11 points each, while Andrea Lazzari added 10.
The Senators continue an important stretch on the schedule with two games this weekend, Friday at Reno and Saturday at home against Douglas. Douglas is 4-1 in league and Wooster is 3-1.
"We have two tough games coming up," Christian said. "We're trying to prepare for those because we know we're going to have to play hard."