Carson High girls basketball coach Paul Croghan was happy with the first four minutes of his team's game against Manogue.
But Croghan wasn't happy with his team's effort for the rest of the game. The Senators coasted to a 57-40 win on Saturday at Carson Middle School, but mainly on the strength of the opening four minutes that helped the Senators build a 21-3 lead after one quarter.
"The other 28 minutes, I wasn't really happy," said Croghan about the way his team played after it opened strong. "We didn't have much intensity. We started going through the motions.
"They've got to understand, you can't turn it on and off. It doesn't matter who you're playing or where you you're playing."
The Senators forced Manogue into turnnovers on its first seven possessions and Carson made its first five shots in building an 11-0 lead.
Katie Kotter scored on a layup off of her own steal and then scored a layup off another turnover and Ciarra Christian hit a three-pointer to give Carson a 7-0 lead. Andrea Hoff scored inside on a pass from Kotter and Tabitha Adams scored inside on a pass from Rosalia Nunez as the Senators built a 22-3 lead early in the second quarter.
Nicole Scott scored on a putback to stop a mini-Manogue run that gave Carson a 24-8 lead. Carson built its lead back up to 30-11 at halftime when Tabitha Adams made a steal and fed Terah Laack for a basket.
Croghan reminded his team at halftime what happened to the Dallas Mavericks in their game on Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers overcame a 27-point fourth quarter deficit for the win.
"I turned it off at the end of the third quarter thinking it was over," Croghan said.
"You can't get it back," Croghan also said about when a team loses its intensity. "You can't play a different speed. You've got to play hard all the time."
Carson took its biggest lead late in the third quarter when Scott scored inside to make it 42-18. Early in the fourth quarter, Kelli Weyrick scored on a pass from Talia Joyce to give the Senators a 46-23 lead and Carson never let the advantage fall below 20 until late in the game.
Kotter and Hoff each scoredd 12 points, Laack had 10 points, Scott had eight points and Christian added seven points for Carson, which plays at Fallon on Tuesday. "I guarantee you, they're very good," said Croghan about Fallon.
