Carson holds off Wooster 47-40

RENO -- The Carson High girls basketball team isn't fond of blowing teams out and it almost came back to hurt them on Friday night against Wooster.

The Senators, who led by as much as 15 points in the second half, allowed the Colts to get within a shot of their lead in the fourth quarter before holding on for a 47-40 Sierra League win at Wooster High.

"We didn't do some very intelligent things with the basketball at times when we had the lead," said coach Paul Croghan. "It was almost like we were playing like the ones that were 15 down. We shouldn't have let that happen. It's like I told them, we gotta' put the dagger in the throat."

Carson (21-7 overall, 8-2 league) trailed 17-16 late in the second quarter before it outscored Wooster 20-4 over the next six minutes to go up 36-21. After not being able to make anything in the first quarter and the beginning of the second, the Senators finally got things going offensively.

"We started to make some shots. We couldn't hit anything in the first quarter. We were shooting air balls," Croghan said. "And that goes for everyone, it wasn't just one person. This gym is a little difficult to shoot the ball because the baskets are pretty far off the wall. It took us a little time to get use to it."

Katie Kotter and Talia Joyce did most of the damage to the Colts. Kotter scored a game-high 17 points and Joyce hit three 3-pointers and finished with 12, including nine in the third quarter, which is when the Senators began to pull away.

Carson also held Wooster's Brianne McGowan, who came into the game averaging more than 20 ppg, to only 17 points.

"Obviously, Brianne you're not going to stop her, but she was almost dead when they were down in the third quarter," Croghan said of the Colts' 6-foot-2 center. "Then she got fired up when they starting coming back and scored like 10 points in a row."

The Colts (17-10, 6-3) fought back from that 15-point deficit by going on a 17-4 run that got them within three points of the lead, 40-37, with 2:19 left in the game. The Senators turned the ball over seven times in the fourth quarter, including four straight turnovers on four possessions before they made free throws toward the end to seal the game.

McGowan scored nine points in Wooster's run but never got her team closer than three as the Colts missed their final three shots of the game and took only four shots from the free throw line in the fourth.

Terri Niederer and freshman Nicole Scott each had seven points for the Senators, who play first-place Reno today at 3:15 at Morse Burley Gymnasium.

"Hopefully, it's a learning experience and we'll use this," Croghan said. "They've had some success here, beating Douglas. I'm just glad it didn't continue against us."