Big third quarter lifts Reno to 52-35 win over Carson

RENO -- Craig Campbell swears revenge wasn't on his mind when his Reno team played Carson on Saturday afternoon.

It was the first meeting between the two teams since the Senators upset the Huskies in last year's Northern 4A Regional Tournament. The 48-40 loss ended the Sierra League champs' season, one that Campbell thought could've led a state championship.

"That was motivation but this game didn't salvage last year's game," Campbell said. "Carson earned that one. We beat them both times during the regular season and they beat us when it mattered."

Carson can only hope a similar scenario will unfold this season.

Kaylan King scored a game-high 13 points and Jessica Stewart and Cory Nelson both had 10 as Reno stayed undefeated in the Sierra League with a 52-35 win over the Senators at Reno High.

The Huskies (12-5 overall, 4-0 league) led only 21-17 at the break but went on an 11-2 run in the third quarter to open up a double digit lead. They outscored Carson 21-7 in the third, something Campbell has gotten used to lately.

"We've been doing that the last eight games," said Campbell, who watched his team outscore Hug 24-5 in the third quarter in Friday night's 76-47 win over the Hawks. "We've made the right adjustments at halftime. Carson is such a quick and aggressive team that we had to do all the little things right. We weren't doing them in the first half but we started to in the second half."

King scored eight of her points in the decisive third, including a pair of 3-pointers. Nelson hit another trey in the third for the Huskies, who were 9-of-15 in the quarter from the field and 3-of-5 from long range in the quarter.

Carson (16-7, 3-2) never got the lead below 10 points in the second half. The Senators, who were coming off a 46-39 win over Wooster on Friday, trailed 12-4 after the first quarter but got back in it in the second.

Freshman Nicole Scott, who scored eight points, scored four of them in the second as the Senators held Reno only 2-of-13 shooting. Carson, though, only got the free throw line eight times in the game compared with the Huskies' 16 trips to the foul line. The Senators were only 8-of-20 from the free throw line against the Colts.

This Reno team has all the goods to get to the state tournament this year, but Campbell scoffs at the notion that the Huskies are the team to beat in the Northern 4A.

"We seem to always lose two or three all-league, all-state players and still be the team to beat," Campbell joked. "Reed beat us, they should be the team to beat. We're really a young team. We start two sophomores but we have two seniors with a lot of varsity experience. We're getting there. We're heading in the right direction. We've had a lot of consistency and stability. We've been fortunate enough to reload and not rebuild."

Talia Joyce scored a team-high nine points and sophomore Andrea Hoff had seven more for the Senators, who host Hug on Tuesday at Morse Burley Gymnasium.