The Carson girls had a decent game plan for shutting down Wooster's Brianne McGowan. Don't let her touch the ball.
"We wanted to double team her as much as possible," said guard Katie Kotter. "It's kind of hard, we're not as big but we're not intimidated."
Of course, the 6-foot-2 center touched the ball, but not nearly enough.
Kotter scored a team-high 16 points and Ciarra Christian had 12 as Carson rebounded from its loss to rival Douglas last week with a 46-39 win over the Colts on Friday at Morse Burley Gymnasium.
McGowan, who leads Northern Nevada in scoring at 24.0 ppg, finished close to her average against the Senators, who improved to 16-6 overall and 2-1 in the Sierra League. McGowan had 23 in the seven-point loss and easily pulled down her average of 19 rebounds per game.
"As coaches, we know we wanted to keep her around 20," said coach Paul Croghan. "If you let her get 36, you're going to have some problems. If she gets the ball on the block, she's a problem. This is the least amount of points she's scored in three games. It's the least amount she's scored on us."
Croghan and the Senators threw several players at McGowan. And while nobody truly negated her, they limited her enough to force other players to try and win the game for the Colts (13-6, 2-1).
Didn't happen.
Only five other Wooster players scored and nobody had more than five points. Carson, meanwhile, had a balanced attack with eight players scoring.
The Senators trailed 13-12 after the first quarter but went on an 11-2 run at the end of the second quarter to go up 23-17 at the break. Talia Joyce, who finished with seven points, made a 3-pointer early in the second quarter that gave Carson its first lead, 17-15.
Kotter's layup early in the third quarter put the Senators up 27-19. Then McGowan went to work. She scored three consecutive baskets in a 40-second span, then made another shot with 1:33 left in the third that got Wooster within three points, 33-30.
Andrea Lazzari scored and was fouled with 14 seconds left in the third but couldn't convert the three-point play when she missed the free throw. The Senators led 35-32 going into the fourth after Christian hit a shot as time expired.
McGowan scored with under two minutes remaining to make it 39-37 but Carson outscored the Colts 7-2 to end the game.
Croghan wasn't happy his team gave up a sizable lead, but figures they may have been already thinking about today's game against Reno. The Huskies are in first place in the Sierra League but a Senator win against them would create a log jam at the top of the league standings.
"Reno's obviously what these girls have been looking towards," Croghan said. "Obviously we want to be in the top four but our goal is to be No. 1. If not, then (No.) 2."
Andrea Hoff scored four points and Terah Laack had three more for Carson.
