Carson High's playoff hopes got a big shot in the arm Tuesday night when the Senators pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season.
Brandi Vega scored 21 points, including three clutch free throws in the final 25.8 seconds, to lead the Carson varsity girls to a 53-48 win against league-leading Bishop Manogue at Morse Burley Gym.
The Senators, who played without starting center Cassie Vondrak (broken nose) and reserve guard Elayna Shine (flu), improved to 5-4 while Manogue dropped to 7-2.
"It was a win we needed," Carson coach Todd Ackerman said. "Every win is a win we need. This is a good win for us."
When Vega was asked how many wins she thought the Senators would need to make the playoffs, she had a quick answer.
"My plan is to win the rest of our games," she said. "That's what I'm leaning toward."
That's not out of the realm of possibility. The remaining five games on the Senators' schedule " Wooster, Galena, Damonte Ranch, Douglas and Fallon " are all winnable. At the very least, Carson has to win at least three of the last five to have a chance.
This game truly tested Carson's mettle under fire.
The Senators scored the game's first 11 points and 16 of the first 20, but found themselves trailing 46-43 early in the fourth period thanks to the outside play of Nicole Aboumrad (14 points) and the inside play of Tallia Jim, who scored all of her team-high 16 points in the final three periods. It was back-to-back scores by Jim that gave the Miners the aforementioned three-point lead.
Vega pulled Carson to within 46-45 with two free throws with 5:02 left, and after Manogue turned the ball over against Carson's press, Bre Anderson drained a shot from the right side as the Senators re-took the lead, 47-46. Manogue turned the ball on its next two possessions, and Carson capitalized on the second one when Anderson was fouled under the basket and made one of two free throws for a 48-46 edge with 3:04 left.
Aboumrad tied the game at 48 with 1:21 left on a floater down the lane, but Tiffany O'Day, who scored eight points, scored what proved to be the game-winning basket with 43.1 left to give Carson a 50-48 lead. Manogue's Ashley Armstrong missed from the corner, and the Miners were forced to foul. Unfortunately for them that player was Vega.
The diminutive senior made the first, but missed the second to make it 51-48, leaving the Miners a small window of opportunity. Alex Luckadoo missed with less than five seconds left, and Vega completed the scoring with two free throws.
"We just kept fighting and fighting," Vega said. "A lot of our players are understanding their place (roles) on the team."
"They hung in and believed they could win this," Ackerman said. "That belief got them the win."
Carson's defense also stepped up in the final period, holding the Miners to just six points and nothing in the final 81 seconds.
"We tried to mix it up on them defensively," Ackerman said. "We ran a 1-3-1 (zone) last time and they were ready for it. We played a 3-2 (zone) for a while and got out of it. We played a 2-3 and got out of it. We played some man. I think they had a hard time getting into what they wanted to run."
Manogue coach Richard Shaw was quick to praise Carson.
"My hat is off to Carson," he said. "I'm disappointed in my team. We didn't come ready to play.
"The first half that's all we did (is shoot from outside). We talked about that at halftime. We started to get the ball inside. The game is played inside out and not outside in. It was hard to get out of that (early hole). We had to fight hard."
- Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com, or 775 881-1281.