Carson girls hoops beat North Valleys

One thing for certain, nobody can say the Carson girls basketball team is just happy to make the Northern 4A playoffs.

Following their 53-35 victory over North Valleys on Friday at Morse Burley Gym, neither the Lady Senators nor their coach, Ric Garcia, had much to talk about except their performance against the Panthers and their game with South Tahoe today.

"We were proud of ourselves and we played as a team," said senior guard Rosella Nunez. "We had a lot of good ball movement and we're getting the ball to the open person today."

How about making the playoffs?

"We have three more games to go," said Nunez, who contributed five points for the Senators. "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves."But how about those playoffs?

"We've got to go to work on Saturday, Tuesday and Friday," said 6-foot-2 senior center Nicole Scott. "We have to get those wins (against South Tahoe, Wooster and Reno)."

Care to comment on those playoffs?

"This was a big game," said first-year girls coach Ric Garcia. "It gives us the opportunity to take either the second seed, or maybe even the first (seed in the Sierra League). But we have South Tahoe and Wooster next, and we're not going to take them lightly."

The Senators did their talking with their play Friday, and after falling behind 13-11 on a turnaround hook by North Valleys' 6-foot-4 center Anita Burdick, Carson went on a 9-0 run and never looked back.

Nunez opened the second quarter with a steal and a layup, junior Kaitlin Burroughs drilled a long jumper, and Scott scored with a jumper over Burdick. Then freshman guard Brandi Vega got a steal and sliced through three defenders for the score and subsequent free throw, to put the Senators ahead 20-13, with 3 minutes, 36 seconds remaining in the first half.

A Scott putback gave Carson its biggest lead of the half - 25-15 - but Burdick narrowed the gap to 25-18 with a free throw and a basket to close the half.

Burdick scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Panthers, but had only 10 points of help from the rest of her team.

"I don't think they contained (Burdick), but they stopped everyone else," said fifth-year Panthers coach Matt Murphy, whose team remained in third place, but fell to 7-4 in the Sierra League and 16-8 overall. "Not a bad game plan. She got her points, but they did a good job on the rest of the team."

Burdick hit another turnaround hook shot to make it 30-21 with 4:24 remaining in the third, but Carson responded when the 5-foot-2 Vega penetrated to the paint and drew out Burdick before dishing off to senior forward Sinead McSweeney for the layup.

Vega had a team-high 12 points, McSweeney added 11 and Burroughs pumped in 10 for the second-place Senators, who improved to 9-2, 13-12.

"Carson shot the ball very well from the field and at the line," Murphy said, "When it comes down to it, their guards are more athletic than ours. They got the lead and were able to slow down the pace. All credit goes to Carson."

But quite a bit of credit went to Burdick, who scored all seven of her team's points in the third quarter, as North Valleys was still within striking distance - down 35-26 - heading into the fourth.

"(Burdick) is tough. She plain never gives up," Garcia said. "When she goes to the basket, she's able to get a lot of offensive rebounds and shots. "

Scott said the Senators keyed on Burdick and thus was able to win the game.

"It didn't seem like she scored that many points (25) during the game," Scott said. "We knew we had to stop her. If you stop her, the rest of the team shuts down."

Which the Panthers did in the fourth quarter, one in which Burdick was held to only four points.

A pair of free throws from Burroughs and two more from McSweeney gave Carson its biggest lead at the time - 43-27. Carson was able to build the lead to 18 after a pair of free throws from Vega, a McSweeney steal and layup and a Scott jumper to make it 51-33, with 57 seconds to go in the game.

Carson will travel to South Tahoe today to face the Lady Vikings, whom they beat in Carson two weeks ago.

"They work very hard," Garcia said of the Vikings. "We're not going to take them lightly - not like we did Hug (which Carson beat in overtime last Saturday). They can get going and get some confidence. Once that happens, anything can happen. They scored over 60 points against Wooster."

The Carson-South Tahoe game begins at 3:15 today.