Carson boys fall to Damonte

If you've ever had one of those days then you can relate to what the Carson boys' basketball team went through Tuesday night.

The Senators dug themselves an early hole that they couldn't get out of when they scored only six points in each of the first two quarters along the way to a 54-42 loss to Damonte Ranch at Morse Burley Gym.

"I don't know, but for whatever reason we are up and down when it comes to putting energy on the floor to start the game," said Carson coach Bruce Barnes, whose team trailed 19-12 at halftime. "Maybe that's our preparation as coaches, I don't know."

Torry Sheets, the Mustangs' head coach, said his team's game plan paid off.

"Shutting them down was the key," Sheets said. "We sat back in the zone and challenged them to make shots. They are usually a good shooting team. We caught them at the right time. They didn't shoot as well as they are capable of."

Although the Senators had a good first half defensively, nothing seemed to fall on the offensive side of the ball after Kevin Brush nailed a 3-pointer to open up the scoring for Carson.

Bryon Wilson hit one of his three treys to give Carson its last lead of the game - 6-5 - with 1 minute, 6 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Jorge Diaz later culminated a 9-0 run for Damonte with a lay-up to make it 15-6 at 3:59 of the second quarter. Senior Chris Carlson, a senior transfer from Douglas High, led the Mustangs with 16 points, followed by Diaz (13) and Josh Buck (11).

"He's our toughest guy," Sheets said of the 6-foot-4 Carlson, who will undergo surgery after breaking his nose in the recent Wild West Shootout tournament. "He's a do-everything-for-us type of player. We're going to have to play the majority of our conference season without him."

Damonte improved to 3-11 overall and 1-2 in Sierra League play, while Carson fell to 6-9. 0-2.

"Obviously you don't want to be 0-2 (in conference) after opening with two games at home," Barnes said. "Two games in...It makes the next game (against Wooster Friday at Carson High School) all the more important."

The Senators didn't go down without a fight. Jack Jacquet scored on a layup and a foul shot to make it 22-17, and after Buck answered with his own layup Carson junior forward Zach Weismann buried a 3-pointer to slice the lead to 24-20 at the 4:31 mark of the third quarter.

Damonte got another layup by Carlson, but Brush hit another three and Jacquet soon followed with a hook shot to make it 26-25. However, that was as close as Carson would come as the Mustangs went on a 13-3 run.

Damonte's largest lead of the night came when yet another of Carlson's layups put the Mustangs up 53-38.

Wilson led Carson with 10 points, followed by Brush, who had eight, and Weismann and Jacquet, each of whom had seven points.

"Maybe we're going to have to get some players in there for us who bring more energy," Barnes said. "We had no protection in the paint. We were missing easy shots in the paint. When you can't make shots inside, sometimes that's contagious (on outside shots)."

Barnes said his team will have some work to do off the court.

"We're going to watch some film as a team," Barnes said. "We have to show them what we did wrong during the game visually. It might help them to see what we see from the bench."