Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
After a non-descript first half, the Carson Senators needed a spark, and sophomore Andrew Johnson provided it.
Johnson scored a season-high 27 points and ignited a 10-0 run early in the third quarter that gave the Senators a double-digit lead and carried them to an easy 61-43 win over Wooster Friday night at Morse Burley Gym.
Carson improved to 8-2 and visits Damonte Ranch at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
'We made some adjustments defensively (in the second half)," Carson coach Bruce Barnes said. "Andrew is the only guy we have that can keep his guy in front of him. He's quick enough to do that.
"In the first half, we were running and jumping and leaving guys wide open and they made their shots. Wooster did a good job of finding the open man."
More often than not, the open man for the Colts was Colton Sims, who threw in 10 of his team-high 15 points in the first half which enabled the Colts to trail just 27-24 at halftime.
Wooster went 10-for-22 from the field in the first 16 minutes and fought back from an early 7-0 first-quarter deficit
"They are playing well," Barnes said. "Until tonight, they had won three out of four and beat Galena. Manogue was the only team they had lost to (in that stretch)."
Sims scored the first basket of the second half to cut Carson's lead to 27-26. That's when Johnson caught fire, dropping in a 3-pointer and then getting a steal that resulted in a layup by Pat Smith. After a Wooster turnover, Brennan Shaffer knocked down a trey from the top of the key for a 35-26 lead. Johnson got another steal on Wooster's next possession which ended with a Josh Peacock layup.
Wooster cut the lead to 41-32, but a bucket and a three-point play by Johnson made it a 14-point game with 1:38 left in the third.
"Coach said at halftime that we needed to get the ball away from them," said Johnson, who said this was his best game of the season. "I was confident. I knew we could pull it out as long as we played as hard as we could.
"I don't know how those shots kept dropping. I was feeling it tonight."
Wooster coach Casey McCann certainly was impressed.
"I thought we played well in the first half," he said. "Carson picked up the intensity defensively, and we couldn't stop Johnson."
Wooster got the lead down to 12 twice in the fourth quarter, the second time coming on a 3-pointer by Sims to make it 55-43 midway through the final period.
Carson scored the final six points of the game, as Johnson contributed a layup and two free throws to finish the best game of his young career.
Brian Barnes finished with eight and Peacock had seven for the Senators.