SPARKS — With four games in six days, including two crossover games, Carson High boys basketball coach Carlo Mendeguia knew he would play a lot of his younger players this week.
“We got out of it what I wanted to,” said Mendeguia, who rested six of his top seven players in the easy 82-49 win over Silver Stage in the first round of the annual Railroader Classic Wednesday afternoon at Sparks High.
“We wanted to get a look at our younger players. They hadn’t played many minutes because the tournament in San Francisco was very challenging. We had a chance to learn some things, and the kids got a chance to show what they could do.”
The main beneficiaries of that decision turned out to be Garaet Rauh, Sevon Mandoki, Connor Quilling and Taylor Saarem.
All four scored in double figures. Rauh and Mandoki led the offense with 16 points apiece, while Kyle Krebs, Quilling and Saarem all had 11.
The win evened Carson’s record at 2-2 entering today’s doubleheader. At 3 p.m. today at Wooster, Carson will take on Lovelock in a winner’s bracket game, and then the team will bus over to Spanish Springs to play a league contest at 7 p.m. against the Cougars.
“I thought Connor (Quilling) did a good job,” Mendeguia said. “He worked hard, and he’s willing to learn and listen to the coaches.
“I was curious to see who was going to step up, and it was the same guys that have been doing it in practice.”
Carson scored the game’s first 13 points, but Silver Stage battled back to make it a 16-10 game after one.
Mandoki scored all eight of his first-half points in the second period, and Krebs came off the bench to score five, as Carson led 38-21. Rauh had six in the first half as did Quilling.
Mandoki and Rauh continued to play well in the third quarter, scoring seven and six, respectively. Krebs, who buried a couple of big 3-pointers at last week’s tournament, drained two treys to help CHS to a 25-point lead after three.
“I didn’t know I was going to start until right before the game,” Rauh said. “I was a little nervous, but not a whole lot. Once we got past the first couple of minutes, I got in the flow.”
Mendeguia spent little time talking about the win. He told his team Lovelock would be a bigger challenge, but the Spanish Springs game was the one he was focused on. He spent most of the brief post-game chat talking about defensive match-ups against the Cougars.
“I’ll probably go back to the starters (against Lovelock) to start, but I want to keep them fresh,” Mendeguia said. “We’ll see how the game goes.”