Shannon Litz/Nevada Appeal
Carson High's season-opening win over South Tahoe certainly didn't earn many style points, and first-year coach Carlos Mendeguia expected as much Thursday night.
"Obviously we need some gym work," Mendeguia said after the Senators' 59-50 win over South Tahoe in the first round of the 35th annual Carson Lions/Capital City Classic.
"We have a pretty sophisticated offense; a lot of sets," Mendeguia added.
"One practice isn't enough. It's going to take a couple of weeks to get settled in. Defensively, I was really happy with our effort. They flew around and played hard out there."
In other games. Dayton got 26 points from Dylan Taylor to subdue Wooster 65-54; Damonte Ranch topped Central Valley 70-56; and Sparks pounded an undermanned Reed squad 68-45.
Mendeguia knows that it will take a better effort, especially on the offensive end, to get past Dayton tonight (7:30 p.m.).
"They're athletic," he said. "It's not a big deal to them to play 4A schools."
Carson started out like it was going to rout the Vikings, who reached the 3A state tourney last year, scoring 13 of the game's first 15 points. Matt Nolan started off hot, scoring six of his 17 in that span.
"The kids seemed nervous about playing Carson," said South Tahoe coach Chris Proctor, attributing those jitters and nine early turnovers to the early deficit.
However, the Senators slowed down in the second quarter, missing eight of their first nine shots and left the floor with a 22-15 lead at the half.
Six straight points by the Vikings' Jacob Stowell closed the gap to 24-23 midway through the third quarter. Carson had a 32-30 lead with 1:23 left, but Nolan scored four straight points in the final 40 seconds to give Carson a 36-30 lead after three.
Carson went on a 12-5 surge to open the fourth quarter, stretching its lead to 48-35. Rafe King, who finished with 15 points in his first varsity game, had three buckets in that span. A free throw by Nolan and a follow shot by Ty Keefer made it 53-39 with less than two minutes left in the quarter.
South Tahoe increased its pressure and got it as close as seven a couple of times, but never got over the hump.
"We tried (to make it interesting)," said Proctor. "It's the same Carson team, good off the dribble. It's good to see they are doing that with Carlos. They are tough and play hard as usual."
Proctor's team hurt itself by missing 18 free throws which had a pretty big impact on the game. Carson missed its share at the line, too.
Mendeguia wasn't happy with the way his team handled pressure and the way it played when South Tahoe went zone.
"We obviously don't have our zone offense in," he said. "Coach (Proctor) probably knew we weren't prepared for a half-court trap and zone defense. Those are things that we'll get better at the more we practice."
Austin Pacheco had seven points as did Keefer. The latter also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
Dayton used a 27-point second quarter to build a 10-point halftime lead and then was forced to stave off a late Wooster rally to win.
"Not bad," Dayton coach Jason Santos said when asked to assess the game. "It was a good start I guess.
"I was very happy with the defensive intensity. They have bought into that this year."
Wooster led 10-7 after the first quarter, but Taylor scored nine in the second quarter and Cody Yeater eight to give the Dust Devils a 34-24 lead at the interception.
Wooster went to a zone in the second half and cut Dayton's lead to 38-32 with 5:11 remaining on baskets by Eddie Arista, Deshawn Pughsley, James Spang and Jordan Harloff.
Dayton scored nine of the next 14 points to get the lead back up to 10, 47-37, after three. Adan Gomez had six in that span and Taylor, who is coming off a sprained ankle, had a three-point play.
"Dylan still isn't 100 percent," Santos said. "He's probably about 85 percent. His jump shot isn't fluid yet. He can't get off the ground like he normally does."
The lead stayed around 10 until Dayton went on a 10-5 run for a 61-47 lead with 1:50. The Colts kept plugging away, scoring seven straight to make it 61-54 with 35 seconds left. That was as close as they got.
Damonte used a second-quarter surge to take control of the game against Central Valley.
For CV, it was too much Jeff Turk and John Carlson. The Damonte Ranch duo combined for 52 points, as Turk finished with 27 and Carlson 25. No other Mustang scored more than six points.
Carlos Mancasola led Central with 28 and Christian Spaschak added 17.
Reed, which was missing seven players from its Northern 4A championship football team, was no match for Sparks.
Reed, thanks to eight points by Deyraun Stamps led 17-14 after one. Sparks outscored the Raiders 54-28 over the last three quarters. The Railroaders exploded for 25 in the fourth quarter.
D.J. Devine led Sparks with 16 points, while Xavier Rodriguez and Brian Morgan added 10 apiece with Bobby Brown chipping in nine. Stamps and Dylan McKenzie led Reed with 10 each.