Carson High boys basketball coach Carlos Mendeguia freely admitted that Tuesday's home game against Reed was one that he fully expected to win.
"Oh definitely," Mendeguia said. "We were all thinking it was a game we should win. We got to see them at the Capital Classic, and they lost all three of their games.
"I think the boys got a little overconfident. I think they thought they could just walk on the floor and beat these guys."
Reed, thanks to a 14-0 second-quarter surge, opened up a 10-point lead and rolled to a 59-47 Northern 4A victory at Morse Burley Gym in the league opener for both schools.
Carson dropped to 2-2, while Reed improved to 1-3.
Reed coach Dustin Hall was especially happy with the win, especially since he is missing seven players from the football team who won't be able to play until later in the week.
"I'm extremely proud," Hall said. "We have some freshmen and sophomores playing right now. We only have one guy (Dylan McKenzie) with any varsity experience."
Reed played a 2-3 zone most of the time, and Carson struggled moving the ball and shooting the ball against it.
"They (Reed) played man-to-man in the tournament," Mendeguia said. "They must have seen how we struggled with it. That was a good move on their part.
"We were standing around too much on offense. We weren't moving the ball around the court quick enough. We were holding the ball too much. We weren't getting into the gaps."
Despite early struggles, Carson led 17-16 with 3:03 left in the first half, and that's when the roof caved in. Reed scored 14 straight points and left the floor at the half with a 30-20 advantage.
The Raiders got 3-pointers from Dylan McKenzie, A.J. Bains and Jon Stacy to start the surge, which included a technical fall on Carson for having six players on the floor.
"We were forcing shots, that started it," Mendeguia said. "They got into our shooters. They had Rafe (King, 10 points) in check most of the game. We forced a lot of passes."
"We started playing better defensively," Gray said. "We talked all week about finishing plays, and we did that tonight. It also helped that we were able to knock down those 3-pointers."
Carson closed the deficit to under 10 just three times in the second half - 37-28 with 4:15 left in the third quarter, 45-36 after three periods and 47-38 with 6:57 left in the game.
The Raiders scored six straight to go up 43-28 and then scored a basket and two free throws to up its lead to 51-38 with 5:29 left.
Carson could do nothing more than trade baskets the rest of the way, which was simply not enough to get the job done.
King and Ty Keefer led Carson with 10 points, while Austin Pacheco and Dylan Sawyers added seven points apiece.
Carson played without Chance Quilling, who is still suffering from football-related injuries and is expected to miss at least a week of action. His presence underneath was sorely missed.
