Ivy Pembrook and Maddy Lowe, Katie McCullough and McKenna Kynett.
MINDEN — On a night when momentum shifted back and forth, the Douglas High girls basketball team rode the biggest swing of all on Friday to a 46-35 Sierra League victory against Carson.
Douglas outscored Carson 26-2 during an 11-minute span bridging the second and third quarters to secure its come-from-behind win in the regular season-ending rivalry game.
The Tigers turned a five-point deficit with five minutes left in the second quarter into a 42-23 lead with 2:38 left in the third — a span in which the Senators only scored on two free throws
“What an atmosphere,” Douglas coach Werner Christen said. “Carson played hard. We played hard, too; the kids stepped up against a real good team tonight.”
Senior guard Jessie Jim led the offense with 13 points and 6 assists for Douglas (19-8 overall, 12-4 league). Carson will travel to play defending state champion Reno to start the playoffs.
Despite seeing their 21-16 lead turn into a 26-22 deficit at halftime, the Senators were still well within striking distance. The complexion of the game, however, turned at the outset of the third quarter.
“We fought hard, we just had a lack of faith for a few minutes when we came out after halftime,” Carson coach Nate Tolbert said. “We didn’t quit. It was just a simple case of not believing in what we were doing for a few minutes, and as a result, we dug ourselves into a hole we couldn’t dig back out of.”
Jim buried a 3-pointer from the left side, assisted by Katie McCullough, to put the Tigers out front 23-21 with 2:13 left before halftime.
There were no major adjustments at halftime, according to Christen.
“We always talk about getting three or four stops,” Christen said. “More than anything, we talked about offense and how important it is to take good shots.”
Jim got the ball rolling to start the third quarter when she drove past a defender for a left-hand layup. Moments later, McKenna Kynett knocked down a 3-pointer from the left side and then scored off an assist from Jim as the Tigers stretched their lead to 33-22. Kelly Sonnemann hit a 3-pointer from the left side, assisted by Jim, then Kassidy Freitas worked her way open for a layup. Kynett scored on a breakaway layup, off yet another assist by Jim, to make it 42-23 with 2:38 left in the third quarter.
Douglas led 42-25 at the end of three quarters, however, there was no counting the Senators out of this contest.
Carly Backman and Cameron Sievers scored back-to-back baskets and Michelle Perry sank a pair of free throws to ignite a 9-0 run as Carson cut the deficit to 43-32. Madison Preston’s 3-pointer from the right side, assisted by Perry, made it 43-35 with 1:10 left to play. That’s as close as the Senators would get, though, as Sonnemann and Freitas combined to sink three throws in the final 46.7 seconds to put the game away.
Earlier, Carson (12-13, 8-8) scored 11 unanswered points to end of the first quarter with a 14-12 lead. Lindy Lehman converted a steal into a breakaway layup and Kayla Aikins scored on a putback to give Carson the lead.
“We were running that Diamond defense very effectively, but then we had to get back out of it because we got a little tired,” Tolbert said, looking back at the second quarter. “But my tip of the cap to Douglas. They did a good job of coming back. They were able to find the lanes we left open.
“I’m still really proud of the kids,” he added. “They fought hard all the way to the end.”