Carson picks up biggest win of year, 68-28 over Sparks

Forgive coach Paul Croghan and his players if they overlooked the Sparks Railroaders on Tuesday night.

After all, the Carson girls basketball team left behind the ice, snow and cold this morning for a tournament in Orlando, Fla.

"I think we might have been looking ahead a little bit," said Croghan, whose team will be welcomed with 70 degree temperatures upon arrival in the Sunshine State. "And I've seen the scores. They (Sparks) have already been beaten down quite a bit this year so I didn't think we should've made it any worse."

Three players scored in double figures, including freshman Nicole Scott's team-high 11 points, as the Senators picked up their biggest win of the year, 68-28 over the Railroaders at Morse Burley Gymnasium.

Geez, just imagine if Carson had taken Sparks seriously.

"Everybody got to play and we got three players in double figures, which is good," Croghan said. "We tried to do some things differently. We haven't run zone all year and we ran it. There's some problems with it. We didn't press that much but I didn't think we needed to."

Good point.

The Railroaders, who are still looking for their first win this season, committed 29 turnovers, most of which were unforced. If the Senators (8-2) had decided to press that number could've been 50. But it's not like Carson was stellar in every aspect of the game, either. It only shot 35 percent from the field (27-of-78) and was 10-of-23 from the free throw line.

"The free throw shooting is horrible," Croghan said. "We've had some games where we've been in the 70s. It's something that we work and we make them run when they don't make 'em. A lot of it is mental but we better start making them when we're in Florida."

Ciarra Christian and Terri Niederer both scored 10 for the Senators, who will open with Araphoe, Colo., in the first round on Thursday. Araphoe, which is 2-2 this season, is a 5A school located in the Denver suburb of Littleton. It's probably safe to say that Thursday Croghan probably won't have the luxury of substituting at will like he did against Sparks. Croghan brought in waves of players, almost overwhelming the Railroaders. All 12 Carson players logged significant minutes and 10 scored. The Railroaders, meanwhile, had only eight players.

The lineup which started the second quarter, made up of Niederer, Christian, Tabitha Adams, Katie Kotter and Bethany Henry, turned a 13-8 first quarter lead into a 35-13 halftime advantage. It only got worse after that.

Amanda Hoff and Talia Joyce both scored nine points and Kotter finished with eight. All of Joyce's points came on 3-pointers, her last in the fourth quarter allowed Carson to open up a 60-21 lead. Sparks' Marisa Coffey led all scorers with 15 points, nine of which came on treys.

The Senators' previous largest margin of victory was a 36-point victory over Rodriguez, Calif.