RENO - The road to a spot in the Northern 4A regional playoffs can be filled with a lot of pitfalls and potholes, but the Lady Senators' game Tuesday with Wooster at Craig Congdon Gym was a smooth ride.
Carson held the Lady Colts to four points in the first half and coasted to a 67-21 win to nail down the No. 2 seed in the Sierra League and improve to 11-2 in conference, 15-12 overall.
Junior Sarah Evans scored a team-high 10 points to lead the Senators, who will face Elko in the first round of the playoffs in Carson. All 11 Carson players who suited up scored and senior Nicole Scott, sophomore Abby Rankl and freshman Blaike King each contributed nine points for the Senators.
April Harden scored a game-high 14 points - including three 3-pointers - for the Lady Colts, who fell to 1-12, 3-21 with the loss.
"Fortunately we had our starters get it done," said Rankl, who along with Evans, Anna Macquarie (three points), senior Briana Dodge (two) and King were on the starting five for Carson. "We played a lot of zone - we worked on that. We took shots from 10 or 15 feet and if they weren't there we pounded it inside."
Down 11-0, Wooster didn't get its first basket until Camille Ratton scored with 55 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Things only got worse for the Colts, who were held to only one point in the second quarter and the Senators took a 36-4 lead into halftime.
"It was fun. I enjoyed it,' said King, who along with Rankl, Evans, Macquarie and Dodge, is usually on Carson's second team. "We worked well together on plays and got everybody scoring."
It was indeed a scoring frenzy for Carson, which got seven points from junior Kaitlin Burroughs, six from sophomore Christy Works and five apiece from senior Sinead McSweeney and freshman Brandi Vega (whose third-quarter trey put the Senators up 54-13), and two more from Hannah Works to round out the scoring.
"Getting the second seed was important," said first-year Carson coach Ric Garcia. "We sealed it up. We wanted to make sure we have a home game (to open up the playoffs). It's huge."
Garcia said he was also pleased with his team's second-half free-throw shooting, where it went 12-of-13 and 18-of-23 overall.
"The kids are coming along," Garcia said. "(Tuesday) was an opportunity for the kids that haven't been getting too much playing time to play. This is where you get some players to show you what they have."
Garcia said he had a good problem this year.
"On most teams, all of these (second-group) players would be starters," he said. "This year was hard because we had a lot of talent. As the season winds down we'll be playing less and less players because we'll have to be in the rhythm of the game. Earlier in the year we were bringing in five (substitutes) at a time, but it's getting to be playoff time."
Carson, which has now won six games in a row, will next play the last team to beat it - the first-place Reno Huskies, who took a 46-33 win at Reno High School on Jan. 24.
"It will be a chance for us to get some confidence," Garcia said. "If we can beat them going into zone, it will give us a lot of confidence. It's not a must-win game. But it will be senior night. We're looking for a big crowd to come there and see us."
The Carson-Reno game begins at 5:15 on Friday.