BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Carson's Nicole Scott dives for a loose ball during the Senator's game against the McQueen Lancers in Carson on Saturday.
The lessons you learn are usually the ones that hurt you the most.
The Carson girls' basketball team found out firsthand what happens when you let your opponent up after having it down with your foot on its throat.
The McQueen Lancers survived a slow start, a poor night at the foul line (12-of-29) and a rough first half to rally and overcome the Senators in overtime, 51-45, Saturday at Morse Burley Gym.
"We had the game won," said Carson coach Ric Garcia. "It's a maturity thing. We were in control the whole game. I told the team they had it from start to finsih and we just didn't finish."
From senior guard Rosella Nunez's inspirational rendition of the National Anthem, to an early lead, to 32-25 advantage heading into the fourth quarter over a McQueen team that had beaten it 48-40 on Dec. 16, Carson had every reason to believe it had the game in hand.
However, a 17-10 fourth quarter - capped off by a Lisa Bishop drive to the hoop with 5 seconds remaining - sent the game into overtime, which the Lancers dominated by a 9-3 margin.
Bishop had a team-high 13 points to lead the Lancers, now 11-6 overall. Brooke York pumped in 12 points and fellow senior guard Kayla Cass added 10 - including two 3-pointers - to lead McQueen to the victory.
"Carson spurted us at the start of the third (going up 34-27) and we were dead for about 90 seconds," said third-year Lancer coach Tobey Hilliard. "We kept competing and battling and getting it close."
Hilliard also credited Alyx Sacks for doing a good job on Carson senior center Nicole Scott, who still managed to score a game-high 18 points, including two 3-pointers.
Freshman guard Brandi Vega added a lot of energy and seven points for the Senators, who fell to 5-10 overall.
"Hopefully we'll learn from this," Garcia said. "We're 1-0 (in the Sierra League) when you come down to it. It's not the end of the world. It wasn't a league game. But it would've been a quality win over a top-10 team rated by the press."
But while the world may not stop spinning with the loss, it doesn't mean the Senators earned any breaks from Garcia for their spirited performance.
"Monday morning at 7 a.m. we're going to be watching film of how that last quarter slipped away," Garcia said. "I'm a real believer in film. Against Damonte Ranch (at 5:15 Tuesday at Carson High School) I hope we can use this to our advantage. It hurt bad. We thought we won, but McQueen pulled it out from under us."
As with all lessons, only time will tell if it was a lesson learned.
McQUEEN 51, CARSON 45
McQUEEN 10 4 11 17 9--51
CARSON 10 6 16 10 3--45
McQUEEN (11-6)
Bishop 5 1-3 13, York 3 6-7 12, Cass 3 1-5 10, Butler 2 2-3 6, Trout 2 1-7 6, Marks 1 1-4 4. Totals: 16 12-29 51. 3-Pointers: Cass 3, Marks 1, Trout 1. Total fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.
CARSON (5-10)
Scott 8 0-0 18, Vega 3 0-1 7, Kilty 2 1-3 5, Nunez 2 2-2 4, Burroughs 1 1-2 4, C. Works 2 0-0 4, Dodge 1 0-0 2, McSweeney 0 1-2 1. Totals: 19 5-10 45. 3-Pointers: Scott 2, Vega 1, Burroughs 1. Total fouls: 25. Fouled out: Brekken, Nunez. Technicals: None.