Fans stayed away in droves from Carson High's opening round NIAA 4A girls playoff game against Spanish Springs.
Too bad, because they missed Carson coming back from a 15-point second-quarter deficit to knock off Spanish Springs 41-36 at Morse Burley Gym.
Carson's reward? A semifinal match-up on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Spanish Springs against perennial powerhouse Reed, which pounded Douglas 68-35 in its opening-round game.
Carson trailed 22-14 at the half, but outscored the Cougars 27-14 over the final 16 minutes to secure the first-round playoff win.
"I had my doubts (that we'd come back)," Carson senior guard Emily Collins said. "I thought if we started playing like we were capable of playing it was a possibility."
It took a better effort defensively to be sure.
The Senators held Spanish Springs without a bucket for a six-minute stretch in the third quarter and the final 5:25 of the game. In those two stretches, Carson outscored Spanish Springs 18-0. Considering the Cougars lost by only five that's huge.
The biggest key to the game may have been the first half when Carson went 4-for-26 from the floor and turned the ball over nine times, yet only trailed by eight at the intermission.
The Cougars had built a 20-5 lead, holding Carson without a point in the final 1 minute 41 seconds of the first quarter and the first 4:40 of the second quarter. Lyndsey Anderson led the Cougars' early surge with nine of her team-high 13 points.
Carson responded with a 9-2 run to end the half. Tiana McAllister-Daggs followed in her own miss, Eliza Matley drained her only 3-pointer of the game, Elena Thurman made two free throws and Maddi Saarem followed in a Matley miss with 6.5 seconds left in the half to make it 22-14.
"We were just horrible in the first half," coach Todd Ackerman said. "We didn't do anything we should have done. I think it was big that as bad as we played we were able to get it down to seven (actually eight) at the half. I felt good after that half. They allowed us to stay around."
"We should have taken more advantage of our opportunities in the first half," Spanish Springs coach Christine Eckles said. "That's been a problem for us all year. We go through periods where we don't score for four or five minutes without scoring."
Carson came out firing in the third quarter, going 9-for-12 shooting and outscoring Spanish Springs 22-8 to take a 34-30 lead.
Treys by Sam Owens and Morning Rose Tobey gave the Cougars a 28-18 lead with 6:03 left in the third quarter. Toby's basket would be the Cougars' last points until 32 seconds were left in the third.
"They got hot in the third quarter," Eckles said. "We just didn't take care of the ball."
"We just picked it up," Ackerman said. "We may have gotten them faster than they wanted to go. We got the game more to our speed."
Collins, who finished with eight points, started the 11-0 surge with a second-chance basket and Savannah Smith, who led Carson with 15 points, followed with a 3-pointer to make it 28-23. Collins followed with a fast-break basket and Smith hit another trey to tie the game at 28 with 3:35 left.
A lay-up by McAllister-Daggs and a lay-up by Cameron Sievers gave the Senators a 32-28 lead. Anderson ended the Cougars' drought with two free throws, but Collins answered back with 18.8 left to give the Senators a 34-30 lead.
Smith and Collins did a sensational job picking up the slack for leading scorer Matley who was an uncharacteristic 2-for-13 from the field.
"The other kids had to pick up the slack," Ackerman said. "Emily hit some big baskets and Savannah got to the basket a couple of times and also hit a couple of 3-pointers."
The momentum that Carson had in the third quarter went on hiatus in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the final period. Baskets by Myrissa Prince and Tobey plus two free throws by Anderson enabled the Cougars to grab a 36-34 lead with 5:25 left.
Those were the Cougars' final point of the night. Spanish Springs went 0-for-10 and turned the ball over twice in that stretch.
Smith tied the game at 36 on a nice drive to the basket and Matley scored her second and final basket of the game to give Carson the lead for good at 38-36 with 3:36 remaining.
It did get a little hairy toward the end, as Carson made just one of four foul shots down the stretch, but the Cougars failed to capitalize.
"Carson played better," Eckles said. "They made shots (in the second half) and we didn't. It's not that we had horrible looks, we just didn't make shots."
