Ugly victory for Carson girls

As wins go, this was a brutal one for the Carson High girls basketball team.

The Senators shot 30 percent from the field for the game, including a 26 percent effort in the first 16 minutes and looked horribly out of sync until the final four minutes of the third period.

That's when the Senators stepped up the intensity on defense, forcing several turnovers which led to a 15-2 run and a 42-35 win over Wooster Friday night at Morse Burley Gym.

Carson improved to 7-3 in Sierra League play heading into Tuesday's game at Damonte Ranch.

"It was an ugly game," Carson coach Todd Ackerman said. "You have to win the ugly ones though. We didn't have any intensity except for that four-minute stretch."

Carson took a 16-15 lead into the locker room, but Wooster quickly regained the lead, 21-16, thanks to four free throws by Ayden Finau and a bucket by Sheila Christy. The Colts wouldn't score again until less than a minute remained in the quarter.

Elayna Shine scored on a layup to make it 21-18, but each team came up empty on their next two possessions.

On Carson's second possession, Gina Bianchi missed both free throws and there was a scramble for the loose ball. Carson was called for a foul, but the Colts' Sarah Cady was called for a technical foul for allegedly throwing the ball at a Carson player and hitting her in the head. Whitney Nash, who led Carson with 12 points, drained both free tosses to slice the lead to 21-20.

Kate Schulz gave Carson the lead for a good with a layup with 3:16 to play. After a Wooster turnover Nash knocked down her second trey of the game to up Carson's lead to 25-21. Following another turnover, Natalie Stevens scored on a layup and then Shine turned another Wooster mistake into two more points to complete the 11-0 run. Wooster ended its nearly five-minute drought with a basket, but a Stevens bank shot made it 31-23 after three.

"The pressure bothered them and they helped us some, too," Ackerman said. "We were able to get some easy baskets."

A 6-0 run by the Colts narrowed Carson's lead to 35-31 with 2:47 left, but a driving layup by Shine and three free throws by Bianchi got the lead back up to nine and decided the outcome.

Carson scored 27 in the second half, nearly doubling its 15-point first-half output.

"We just didn't play together in the first half," said Shine, who finished with six points. "It was ugly."

Bianchi, normally a double-figure scorer, went 0-for-7 in the first and finished the game 1-for-12 unofficially though she did hit six free throws to finish with eight points. Ackerman said he couldn't remember the last time his star forward only made one field goal.

"She had good shots," Ackerman said. "They just didn't go down."