Carson girls hoops hosting tournament

The Carson High girls basketball team will begin a busy stretch when it hosts its 22nd annual tournament.

The Senators will be among the 10 teams in the tournament who will play five games in three days during the event that runs from today through Saturday at Carson Middle School and Carson High. The tournament will be divided into two five-team pools.

In pool play, all the teams will play two games today and two games on Friday. The winners of each pool will play in the championship game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Carson High.

The Senators will play Rodriguez of Fairfield at 3:30 p.m. and Fernley at 8 p.m. today at Carson High. On Friday, the Senators will play at 2 p.m. against Pyramid Lake and at 8 p.m. Friday at Carson High.

Preceding the 8 p.m. game, Carson's boys will play Foothill of Las Vegas at 6:30 p.m.

In the other pool will be defending tournament champion Armijo of Fairfield, defending NIAA/U.S. Bank 3A State champion Lowry, South Tahoe, Spring Creek and Wooster.

Early-season tournaments are hard to predict, but an Armijo-Carson matchup in the finals wouldn't be a surprise.

"You want to win your own tournament and play in the finals," Carson coach Paul Croghan said. "If we play our game, I think we should be in the finals."

Lowry is coming off beating Elko in the finals of its own tournament. Armijo has six seniors and six juniors on its roster.

"I'm sure they're returning some girls that were on the championship team last year," Croghan said.

Led by Brianne McGowan, Wooster has showed it will be a force this year, giving Galena all it could handle in a 45-42 loss earlier in the season.

"Brianne is still a force," Croghan said. "I think it's a good field and we'll get in a lot of basketball games in the next few days.

Everybody feels the same way. This time of the year, the more games, the better. We didn't have any complaints about playing two a day."

With an experienced team that has high hopes, Carson is off to a 2-2 start.

Following the tournament Carson will host Sparks on Tuesday and head out Dec. 18 for a tournament in Orlando, Fla. for a tournament featuring some of the top teams in the nation.

"I think that everyboyd wants to be healthy for that trip next week to Disney World," said Croghan about traveling to Orlando. "They haven't talked about it that much."

With an experienced team that has high hopes, Carson is off to a 2-2 start.

"We're still trying to get some things ironed out," Croghan said. "I think we're where we figured to be and possibly a little ahead."

Carson is coming off a 60-55 loss at Fallon in a game between two talented teams that figure to make a significant run in the Northern 4A playoffs. The Senators couldn't hold a 10-point fourth quarter lead at Fallon.

The Senators figure to have a balanced attack most of the time, but against Fallon, Ciarra Christian scored 24 points while Katie Kotter was the next highest at 10.

"She's pretty good at penetrating and drawing a foul," said Croghan about Christian, who was 9-of-10 from the foul line against Fallon.

But Croghan said he still wants to see a more balanced attack. "There's no reason why we shouldn't have three or four girls in double figures," said Croghan, who added he would like to see four players averaging 10 to 15 points a game.

With shooters like Kotter, Tabitha Adams and Talia Joyce, Carson also has taken full advantage of its three-point shooting ability. The Senators hit only three treys against Fallon.

"They can all shoot them and they make a difference," Croghan said.

Charles Whisnand is the Nevada Appeal Sports Editor.