BY DARRELL MOODY
Nevada Appeal Sports Writer
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE " Every once in a while a team needs a laugher, and that's exactly what Carson had Friday night.
The Senators shot 58 percent from the field and held South Tahoe to 11 second-half points en route to a lopsided 64-28 victory in a Sierra League boys basketball game.
The win was Carson's second straight. Carson, which swept the season series with South Tahoe, is now 5-3 in league heading into Tuesday's game against league-leading Manogue which pinned a 20-point loss on Carson earlier this year in Reno.
The Senators are 11-8 overall.
"It (a big win) gets them (the regulars) off their feet," said Carson coach Bruce Barnes, who rested key players like Matt Rutledge, Brian Barnes and Paul Cagle III for most of the second half. It's good to play everybody. Everybody works hard in practice."
Twelve of Carson's 13 players scored. Kalvin Case led the Senators with 13 points, 11 of them coming in the first half when the Senators built a 30-17 advantage. Uriel Duran, Pat Smith, Cagle, Barnes and Ian Gunn all scored six points.
With Rutledge and Cagle hampered by early foul problems, Carson needed somebody to pick up the slack, and that somebody was Case.
Leading 23-15 with 3:33 left in the half, Case scored six consecutive points to extend the Senators' lead to 29-15. Chris Klug ended the mini-drought with a jump shot to make it a 12-point game, but Gunn's free throw gave Carson a 30-17 lead at the half.
Case was aggressive going to the basket, and when he didn't score, he usually got fouled.
"He had a good game," South Tahoe coach Chris Proctor said. "You prepare for Cagle, Barnes and Matt Rutledge. That's one of the reasons Carson is getting better because they're adding more people to prepare for."
Bruce Barnes agreed.
"You can't just rely on two or three guys," said the Carson coach. "I've been telling him (Case) to look for his shot. He can break people down on the dribble. It's nice to have somebody (different) step up."
Barnes went to a 2-3 zone in the third quarter. That decision proved to be the undoing of South Tahoe.
Over the course of the third quarter, South Tahoe went 1-for-9 from the field and turned the ball over five times.
Case and Duran scored to open the second half and Klug answered with a basket with 5:05 left. That was the extent of the Vikings' third-quarter offense, as Carson ended the quarter with 12 straight points and a 46-19 lead. Brian Barnes scored all six of his points in that span, converting a three-point play and then knocking down a 3-pointer.
"The zone took us out of our offense," Proctor said. "We needed to have a better start to the third quarter. Two points. That's pretty much the tale of the tape. We didn't do well there (in the opener). We'd been pointing to this game."
The Vikings played a little better in the final period " at least in the first four minutes when they scored seven points, five coming from Daniel Vallejo. Over the last four minutes of the game, South Tahoe managed just one hoop.
South Tahoe went 5-for-18 from the floor and tuned the ball over six times in the final eight minutes. All told, South Tahoe went 6-for-27 with 12 turnovers in the final 16 minutes. That isn't enough to win a good pick-up game on the playground.
"The second-half defense was just great," coach Barnes said. "We were able to get easy baskets off turnovers. They were in a 1-3-1 with a runner (along the baseline). That allowed us to trap the corners. We really didn't have to adjust as the game went along."
- Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 775 881-1281