For a game that was tied at halftime, one can only imagine what happened to McQueen in the second half for freshman Kyle Bacon and Royal Good to be on the floor for the Carson Senators.
"At halftime, I would have never guessed in a million years that was going to happen," said coach Bruce Barnes.
The simple solution is that Carson made shots in the second half, better than 60 percent of them. The more complex one is why the Lancers missed shots, exactly 25 percent of them.
The end result was a 65-46 Senator win in the first round of the Northern 4A Regional Tournament on Wednesday at Morse Burley Gymnasium.
"We missed so many easy shots in the first half and started making them in the second half" Barnes said. "We knew we wanted to watch (Dustin) Rosness and (Mohu) Otuafi and double down on (Zack) Hicks. But I think the thing is that the guys are real confident right now."
Nobody scored in double figures for McQueen. Rosness led the way with nine points and Otuafi had seven.
There were seven ties and nine lead changes in the first 20 minutes of the game. Then it happened, the run that Barnes figured would come at some point.
With the Senators (17-9) leading 41-39 with 2:52 left in the third quarter, they went on an 17-3 run and outscored the Lancers 24-7 to end the game. McQueen (12-12) was only 3-of-18 from the field in the fourth quarter and 1-of-12 from behind-the-arc.
And while Barnes isn't sure what the exact play started a game-ending run for the Senators, he realizes that Jason Alcasas was the player who was most responsible. The junior guard scored 10 of his 12 points in the clinching run, including a trey at the end of the third quarter as he was falling down that put Carson up 47-39.
"The last couple of weeks I've been playing pretty bad," Alcasas said. "I was talking with the coaches and they told me to go out and do what I can do. I think it was a lot of guys, though. At halftime, coach told us to come out in the second half with a lot of intensity. It was just a real good team effort from there."
Ricky Correlli scored a game-high 18 points but had only four field goals. He was 10-of-15 from the foul line. Correlli and Ed Jaquette, who scored 11, carried the Senators in the first half. The two seniors combined for 21 of the team's 27 points. Andy Bohm and Gary Borst, who has been battling the flu this week, both had five points.
Jaquette's layup with 3:01 left in the game ended the 17-3 run, which then opened the door for Bacon and Good to step on the floor. Barnes moved up both freshman to bolster a roster that been dwindling the past two weeks because of injuries. Bacon and Good made the most of their playing time with both players making layups in the game's final minutes.
If Bacon and Good are playing on Friday, though, Carson will have already punched its ticket to the state tournament. The Senators will play Hug in zone semifinals on Friday at Morse Burley Gymnasium The Hawks, who have already lost to Carson this season, upset Reed 79-75 on Wednesday.
"For some reason, we got their number this season," Alcasas said.
When Barnes was asked if there is anything to the old adage that it's tough to beat the same team three times in one season, he responded...
"Wooster's beaten us three times. No, we'll have to play this well to beat them again. Hug will come in with that revenge thing."
HUG 79, REED 75
Wendell Ware led five players in double figures with 19 points as the fourth-seeded Hawks upset the High Desert League champion in a first round game at Reed.
The game was tied at 32 before Hug scored nine unanswered points to end the half and go up 41-32. The Hawks extended their lead to 56-38 midway through the fourth quarter as their quickness posed a problem all game for the Raiders, who had 26 turnovers.
Reed's Mark Burkhardt hit a pair of free throws with 1:30 left in the game to get the Raiders within four, 71-67. But the Hawks added a layup and were 6-of-8 from the foul line in the final minute.
Robert Vega scored a game-high 33 points, Walt Hopkins had 20 and Kris Talancon 13 for Reed, which didn't have a single bench player score in the game. Vega, Hopkins and Talancon combined for all but nine of the Raiders' points.
"After watching them play tonight, it's hard to believe they lost five league games," said Reed coach Paul Gray. "I guess we bring out the best in them."
Hug beat Reed 60-57 in the zone semifinals last season.
