Carson's Matt Rutledge, 23, battles for the ball in their game against Faith Lutheran at Douglas High School on Friday. BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal
MINDEN - Douglas High used a trapping defense and big Jeff Nady's scoring to overwhelm Dayton 73-39 in the semifinals of the Carson Valley Classic Friday night at Douglas High School.
The Tigers advance to face Faith Lutheran of Las Vegas, a 66-49 winner over Carson in the other semifinal.
The Tigers will play Faith Lutheran today at 4 for the championship, while Carson meets Dayton today at 2:30 in the third-place game.
"We're going to see a lot different team today," Douglas coach Cory Thacker said. "Faith Lutheran is a good team. We're going to have to play 32 minutes. Twelve out of 32 is not going to make it.
"It took a long time before we decided to go out and play. It was all effort. We didn't do anything different (in the second half). We have to find a way to start that in the first half."
Douglas came back with an effective trapping defense that forced Dayton into 22 second-half turnovers. When the Dust Devils were fortunate enough to get through the pressure, they couldn't get a ball to drop.
Trailing 27-24 at the half, Douglas turned a five-point deficit, 32-27, into a six-point lead, 42-36, in the last 4 minutes 25 seconds of the third quarter, outscoring Dayton 15-4 in that span.
Nady was front and center in the first scoring surge with eight straight points to give Douglas a 35-32 lead.
And, when Douglas started the fourth quarter with 12 straight points to open up a 54-36 lead, the Dust Devils were through. Stick the proverbial fork in them.
Nady had 10 of Douglas' points in that span, including two 3-point field goals, as Dayton didn't get anybody near Nady when he was away from the basket.
Hans Meyer scored 11 of his 13 in the first half to help Dayton to a 27-24 lead at the half. Meyer was held to just one basket the entire second half.
Douglas' defense helped hold Dayton to just 12 second-half points.
FAITH LUTHERAN 66, CARSON 49
Carson, playing without injured veterans Zack Rispin and Will Holbert, was outscored 38-17 in the middle two periods, and that was the difference in the game.
That and a poor effort in the defensive rebounding category. Faith Lutheran had a 39-24 rebound advantage, many of the rebounds resulting in putback baskets.
"Not a little, a lot," Carson coach Bruce Barnes said when asked about Faith Lutheran's rebounding. "That's something we have to work on in practice."
Barnes was upset that his team didn't slow down Faith Lutheran's charge to the basket; upset it didn't body the Crusaders' players a little more. Faith Lutheran had six putbacks in the second half.
Dionte Wright was especially effective. Three of his four second-half baskets were putbacks. He finished with 17, 10 of those in the second half. He also blocked four shots.
Carson rode the hot hand of Caleb Carter early. Carter scored eight of Carson's first 10 points as the teams fought to a 12-all tie in the first period.
Carter drove the lane and then hit a 3-pointer to make it 17-12, but Faith Lutheran went on a 16-2 surge to build a 28-19 lead. Carter failed to score in the final 4 minutes 57 seconds of the half. Rob Valerius' layup was Carson's only answer back in that run.
Brett Lubbe had two quick buckets in the second quarter, and Max Done and Chase Saunders each knocked down a 3-pointer.
"He (Carter) got out of the gate fast," Barnes said. "Maybe we're leaning on him too much. He's a shooter. He has the green light. We have to learn when he's not hot to run our sets a little longer."
Trailing 31-21, Carson went to a zone to start the third quarter, but that strategy didn't last long. Faith Lutheran went on a 14-4 run to open up a 45-25 lead with 3:01 left in the third quarter.
Done had seven points, including a trey and a putback, while Wright and Paul Moyer followed in missed shots for baskets.
"We wanted to get a little look at the zone," Barnes said. "That didn't work out well. We had to get out of it."
It's tough to rebound out of a zone defense, and Carson, as Barnes said earlier, didn't put bodies on Faith Lutheran, and the Crusaders made them pay big time.
Layups by Brian Barnes and Carter cut the lead to 16 with 2:10 remaining in the third, but Wright & Co. went on a 11-0 run over the next four minutes to open up a 28-point lead, 57-29.
Carson never quit, but it was much too big of a deficit to put a dent into.
Carter led Carson with 21, while Brian Barnes and Cagle added 10 each.
"Our second group had a nice stretch where they made things happen," coach Barnes said. "They did a good job of running and jumping.
"We made a lot of mistakes tonight, but the good news is that they are correctable."