Douglas boys too much for Carson

MINDEN - Nothing seemed to go right for the Douglas boys' basketball team in a 64-46 loss at Spanish Springs earlier this week.

Hosting their rival, Carson High School, Friday night, it seemed the Tigers could do no wrong.

Douglas overwhelmed the Senators with its speed and height, picking up a 66-45 win in a game they led by as many as 28 at one point.

"You just have to compliment the kids for coming into practice (after Spanish Springs) and refocusing," Douglas coach Corey Thacker said. "We had two great days of practice where they just worked really hard.

"We talked about how when you work hard, you get rewarded. I felt like we saw that come to fruition tonight."

Douglas pushed ahead to a 19-10 lead in the first quarter, but Carson got a 3-pointer from Drew Moreland and a basket from Tyler Collins to cut the lead to 19-15 in the first minute of the second.

That was as close as the Senators would get.

Following Collins' basket, Douglas pushed the ball right back down the floor and Matt Thomas drew a foul while making a layup.

After converting the free throw, Austin Neddenriep stole Carson's in-bound pass and drew another foul while scoring a layup of his own. He also converted his free throw.

Carson turned the ball over on the other end and Douglas' Theo Denson converted two free throws 40 seconds later to give the Tigers an 8-0 run in just over 50 seconds of game time.

Another Carson turnover set the Tigers out on a breakaway, which Thomas slammed home. Jorey Scott later added a free throw to complete an 11-0 run for the Tigers.

Scott also had a pair of first-half 3-pointers that helped stretch the Carson defense out and open things up down low.

Douglas also managed to clean up its defense after putting Spanish Springs on the free throw line for 36 free throws earlier in the week. Carson only had 15 free throws Friday night, making only six of them.

"One big thing we wanted to do was play defense," Thacker said. "We didn't put guys on the line all the time. It helps to be intense but not foul. They did a good job."

Neddenriep led the Tigers with 17 points, Scott had nine, Thomas had eight, Denson and Trevor Shaffer each had six and Kameron Van Winkle and Hunter Myers each had four.

Brian Barnes led Carson with 16 points, Trey Jensen had nine and Matt Nolan had five in the loss.