MINDEN - Douglas boys' basketball coach Corey Thacker has been preaching hard-nosed defense to his team all season long.
It appears to finally be taking root.
The Tigers led Carson by an amazing 48-4 with a little more than four minutes left in the third quarter Wednesday night in Minden before Thacker pulled his starters out for good.
With the mercy-rule running clock in effect over the final 13 minutes of the game, Douglas pulled away with a 64-30 win over the Senators.
"I was really happy with how focused the kids were coming out," Thacker said. "All 13 guys were ready to go and intense. That's a credit to them. Hopefully that focus is something we can continue to replicate."
After Douglas' Hunter Myers, who finished with 13 points, led off with a put-back underneath, Carson's Bruce MacIntosh scored to tie the game at 2. Douglas didn't look back from there.
The Tigers ran off a 7-0 run with baskets from Myers, Jake Tessmann and Connor Hughes and a free throw from Trevor Shaffer before Carson's Ty Keefer scored with 4:18 remaining in the first quarter.
From there, Douglas went on an unprecedented 39-0 run, holding the Senators scoreless over the next 16 minutes of the game before calling off its press. The second-quarter shutout was the first for the Tigers since hold Reno scoreless in the third late last season.
"That was something where the kids started noticing on the bench and saying 'Hey, let's hold them off the rest of the quarter,'" Thacker said. "That's tough to do. It happened against Reno last year and it happened against Reno at the start of the 2007 playoffs. It just doesn't happen that often and it's something to be proud of.
"Carson stuck with it, though. They are still trying to figure out their guys and they are missing some key people. Our guys came out focused and that's all we can ask."
Rafe King ended the run with a 3-pointer at the 4:19 mark of the third quarter. It was the first of what would be three 3-pointers for King . He had four in the game. He finished with a game-high 16 points, all of which came after Douglas' decisive run.
Sophomore James Herrick scored 15 points to lead Douglas in a breakout effort.
"James had a great game," Thacker said of the 6-10 forward. "He came in ready to go. He caught the ball and kept it high and finished well. He did some great things on both ends of the floor. It was a big game for him."
Trevor Shaffer and Nate VonAhsen each put up seven points and Connor Hughes added six.
Hughes had one of the most unique plays of the game when he inbounded the ball to himself off a Carson defender's back right under the Douglas basket. Hughes grabbed it off the bounced and dropped it in.
Nick Maestretti and Tessmann each had four points, Joe Syammach had three, Matt Wylie and Austin Evans each had two,
Douglas has to still travel to Carson later this season in what will be the schools' third matchup of the year.
"It's tough to beat any team three times in a season, but this is different because it is our rival and it'll be at their place. We know they are going to come ready to play and ready to come at us. They're only going to get better."
