The Carson High boys basketball team wanted tough competition during its nonleague season and has traveled all the way to San Diego to receive it.
Carson will open at 7:30 p.m. tonight against Mt. Miguel in the San Diego Classic, a 16-team tournament that figures to be a tough test for the Senators (3-3). The Senators will play four games in the tournament and expect them all to be tough.
They open with a team in Mt. Miguel that's favored to win the Grossmont League and is ranked No. 8 in the San Diego section. Mt. Miguel returns last year's Grossmont League Player of the Year.
Mt. Miguel should be representative of the competition that Carson will receive throughout the tournament, which continues through Monday.
"There's some power teams there," Carson coach Bruce Barnes said. "I think in preseason everyone wants to play someone tough so you can get a little bit better. Everyone in the tournament should be formidable for us."
Carson then should receive a chance to see how it stands in the Northern 4A in its own tournament. The Capital Classic will be held Dec. 26 through 28.
Carson will open with Spring Creek at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and if it wins would play the winner between Wooster and Sparks. The Railroaders' two losses have come against Wooster and Carson, which beat Sparks 66-50 on Tuesday behind Andy Bohm's 22 points.
On the other side of the bracket will be Elko, Manogue, McQueen and Highlands of Sacramento. An attractive possible matchup -- and gauge -- would be Carson and McQueen in the finals.
"We've seen a lot of these teams in the summer and the fall," Barnes said. "There's a lot of parity. I think we're all going to knock each other off a lot during the season."
Much like what Barnes expected, different players are stepping up each time for the Senators. Carson appears to be a team growing in confidence, coming off its win over Sparks and a 70-64 overtime loss to Foothill of Las Vegas, a team expected to be one of the top clubs in Southern Nevada.
Ed Jaquette scored 19 points and made one-of-two free throws to force overtime against Foothill.
"I thought we played well against Foothill," Barnes said. "We played hard for 36 minutes.
We were one free throw away from winning it. Ed Jaquette gave us a great effort."
Point guard Ricky Correlli has also been playing well. "He breaks guys down off the dribble," Barnes said. "He might be our best offensive rebounder.
"He's one of those players who's always where the ball is. He's that type of player."
In virtually every game it plays, Carson will be the smaller team on the floor.
"We're scrappy, though," Barnes said. "We play hard. We should be a pretty good shooting team with multiple guys leading us in scoring on different nights."
Charles Whisnand is the Nevada Appeal Sports Editor.
