South Tahoe takes it to Carson

Carson High School had some good shots at South Tahoe in the second quarter Friday night.

Those shots didn't fall, and in the process the Senators saw their shot at second-place in the Northern 4A boys' basketball race disappear as South Tahoe soared to a 67-46 victory at Morse Burley Gymnasium.

Matt Williams scored 14 points to lead a balanced attack in which five players reached double digits as the Vikings (21-4) improved their second-place Division II record to 9-1.

Meanwhile, Carson (15-10) dropped to 6-4 on a night when senior standout Kevin Cote was out due to illness that sent him to the hospital. One player would not have made the difference in this game, however.

"Give Tahoe credit. They're tough to play the second time around," Carson coach Tom Andreasen said, referring to last Saturday's meeting at South Lake Tahoe, when the Senators went down to the wire before losing 65-56. "They adjust real well to you. That's a good basketball team."

This time the Senators stumbled early, as they managed to score only four points in the second quarter and fell behind by 29-18 at halftime.

"We got open shots in the second quarter, we just couldn't hit anything," Andreasen said. "When you start doing that, and they start getting every rebound, you're in trouble."

The Vikings stepped up their performance from last Saturday, according to coach Tom Orlich.

"We were fortunate to win last Saturday," Orlich said. "Tonight, we earned our win."

Being patient on offense and good shot selection was a high priority for the Vikings.

"We had a good game plan," South Tahoe guard John Giannoni III said. "We wanted to keep them off the boards, we wanted to get good movement, and we wanted to be patient and get good shots. We stuck to the game plan, and played four good quarters."

Giannoni scored 12 points and handed out four assists, three of which resulted in 3-pointers by Williams. Travis McCollum added 12 points, Andy Butcher 11 and Bob Laramore 10 for South Tahoe.

Matt Leck led Carson with 10 points, while Cody Longero added nine. Lee Biddlecome scored seven and the 6-foot-9 senior also blocked six shots.

Both teams face important games on Tuesday. Carson travels to Fallon for a game it needs to win to preserve third-place in Division II, and South Tahoe hosts Reno in a showdown for the division championship.

Notes: Carson's J.V. boys extended their win streak to 20 games with a 59-56 triumph over South Tahoe. Steve Weyrick scored 15 points, Ben Jackson 13 and Scott Bauer 10 to lead the Senators (10-0 in division, 23-1 overall). Ryan Buttner scored seven of his nine points in third quarter as Carson took a 46-41 lead ... The Carson freshman boys won their seventh straight by pulling out a 40-39 verdict at South Tahoe. Andy Heldebrand scored 14 points for the Senators (7-3, 15-6).