CARSON CITY - Carson High coach Bruce Barnes kept his team in the locker room for all but 10 seconds of the halftime break.
No doubt he blasted his squad for some shoddy defense, as South Tahoe ran at will and trailed the favored Senators by just one point at halftime.
Carson, which had been relying on its defense through the first six league games, yielded only 19 second-half points en route to a 67-51 win over the Vikings on Tuesday night at Morse Burley Gymnasium.
"Hands down it was the worst defense in a half we've played in quite a while," Barnes said. "We gave up 32 points. They did well in their dribble penetration and beat our pressure so much that we had to get out of it because it wasn't giving us anything.
"That's how they (South Tahoe) play. It doesn't matter what the score is. They play so hard."
And, for the first 28 minutes, the Vikings gave Carson everything it had. With 4 1/2 minutes left and Carson sitting on a 56-49 lead after a layup by Blair Berry, who scored a career-high 18 points, the Carson defense finally got things rolling.
South Tahoe went six straight possessions without getting up a shot and Carson scored seven points to up the lead to 63-49 with 1 minutes, 18 seconds left.
"I really don't know what happened," South Tahoe coach Chris Proctor said. "This is a young team that is trying to learn to win. Each game we get a little closer."
Brian Barnes, who led the Senators with 21 points, started the surge with a free throw to make it 57-49. South Tahoe turned the ball over the next three times down the floor, but the Senators were unable to capitalize. On the fourth Vikings' error, sophomore Andrew Johnson dropped in a 3-pointer to make it 60-49. Johnson stole the ball on South Tahoe's next possession and converted it into a layup and a 62-49 advantage. Barnes capped the run with a free throw after another South Tahoe turnover.
Jalen Quistgard ended the drought with two free throws to make it 63-51. Two more free throws and a Tyler Collins putback in the final 45 seconds cemented the win.
"We didn't do anything different," said Barnes, who insisted that his team didn't look past South Tahoe to Douglas on Friday. "That spurt, I don't know whether it was our defense or errant play on their part. We created a couple of steals into layups.
"We had no enthusiasm tonight. We never talked about Douglas at all. We don't do that."
In the first half, it seemed that it was the Vikings who got layups, consistently beating the Senators' full-court pressure. The Vikings put together an 11-4 late in the first half to take a 32-29 lead with 2:28 remaining.
Garrett Tinlin started the run with a layup, and his teammates kept it going. Blair Berry, Rylan Tepper, Peter Pielaet-Strayer, Ricky Braun and Thomas Eidam all scored. Eidam's three-point play ended the surge.
It took a bucket by Barnes and a buzzer-beating putback by Trey Jensen to give Carson a 33-32 lead at the half.
Jensen gave the Senators a big lift in the first half with eight points.
"He's coming along every day," the elder Barnes said. "People cheat defensively on a couple of our guys, and we do the same thing. Trey is a very capable shooter. He might be the best we have from about 17 feet."
"We felt we had to beat them down the floor," Proctor said.
Carson had a 41-40 lead when it started to distance itself from the pesky Vikings.
Barnes hit a 3-pointer to make it 44-40, and after Berry's basket (18 points) made it 44-42, Carson scored the next six points, four on drives to the basket by Barnes to take a 50-42 lead after three.
"He (Brian Barnes) had some big buckets," said the elder Barnes.
The younger Barnes had 10 points in the quarter, including 3-point baskets that put the Senators up by six and eight points, respectively.
The teams played even basketball for the first 3 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter before Carson's defense woke up and took control thanks to the ultra-quick Johnson, who again got his hands on a lot of balls and set up the fourth-quarter spurt.
CARSON JV BOYS WIN
Matt Nolan scored 19 points to lead Carson to a 59-46 win over South Tahoe.
The win gave Carson a 6-1 record in Sierra League play.
Ty Keefer added 11 and Chance Quilling six for Carson.
FROSH BOYS WIN
Casey Wolfe and Sage Smith scored nine points apiece to lead Carson to a 46-21 win over South Tahoe.
Carson is now 14-1 overall and 7-0 in league.
Rafe King aided the offense with eight points.