Carson High School boys basketball coach Tom Andreasen was willing to concede some points to Reno's Alex Gamboa and David Woods.
And even though the veteran duo combined to score 20 points each, Andreasen still didn't feel they were the deciding factors in the Huskies' key 76-62 Northern 4A Division II victory at Carson on Tuesday night.
Instead, he pointed to the 13 points each from Nate Rosenbloom and Ryan Kane as the intangibles that helped Reno improve its division-leading record to 8-0 (19-4 overall).
"We got beat by a better basketball team tonight," Andreasen said after watching the Senators (13-8) fall to 4-2 in division play. "We knew Gamboa and Woods were going to get their points - they're both three-year starters so they've been through some games - but Rosenbloom and Kane absolutely killed us. When they shoot that way, you're not going to beat them."
Reno hit seven of its first eight shots from the floor during a four-minute stretch, with Rosenbloom scoring seven of those points, as the Huskies blew out to a 25-7 first-quarter lead.
The scenario was similar to the Jan. 7 meeting between these two rivals, when Reno surged to a 40-18 halftime lead. Carson staged a furious second-half comeback before finally losing that game, 60-58, and the Senators came back this time as well. Even though the Senators didn't make it quite so close this time, they did make it interesting.
"They're too competitive. They always keep coming at you; I knew they would come back," Reno coach Pete Padgett said.
Cody Longero scored 18 points, Lee Biddlecome 16 and Matt Leck 11 to lead the Senators offensively.
Carson scored eight unanswered points during a one-minute span to cut the gap to 38-29 with 22 seconds remaining before halftime, only to see Gamboa pull up and bury a 3-pointer from the top of the key before time expired.
The Senators continued to peck away at the outset of the third quarter. Nick Zimmerman knocked down a 3-pointer from NBA range and Leck hit a baseline jumper off an assist from Biddlecome to cut Reno's lead to 42-35. After Rosenbloom's 3-pointer, Biddlecome scored on a follow shot and Longero fed Zimmerman for another 3-pointer that made it 45-40 with 4:56 remaining in the third period.
That's as close as the Senators would get as Reno took off on a 7-0 run, punctuated when Gamboa converted a steal into a no-look pass behind his back to Kane for a layup that pushed Reno's lead to 52-40.
"We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times," Andreasen said. "We kept getting back, then we'd miss a couple of opportunities and they'd take off on us again."
Padgett pointed to rebounding and shot selection as keys for the Huskies.
"Carson is probably the best offensive rebounding team in the league, they're so athletic and they really get after the ball, and I thought our kids did a phenomenal job on the boards," Padgett said. "Second, I thought our shot selection was very good there in the second half."
