Carson's win streak is over

RENO - The Carson girls' five-game winning streak came to a crashing halt Tuesday night.

Bishop Manogue scored 15 of the game's first 20 points en route to an easy 54-35 victory in a game that really wasn't as close as the core indicated.

Carson dropped to 4-3 in Northern 4A play, while Bishop Manogue improved to 5-2. Carson returns to action Friday at 6 at home against McQueen.

Points were hard to come by as Manogue's inside defense continually frustrated the Senators, who shot 29 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 14 times. Carson just seemed out of rhythm most of the time at the offensive end.

"We didn't take care of the ball," Carson coach Todd Ackerman said. "We gave them too many easy opportunities. We didn't have any problems with their press. At times we didn't make the right decisions."

There was some definite indecisiveness. There were times when players could have driven to the basket but didn't force the issue. There were other times when open teammates weren't spotted in time and there were times when that indecision enabled Manogue's defense to close out on the Senators.

Morgan Carlson, a 6-foot junior swatted four shots and had a number of offensive rebounds. She finished with eight points. Her rebound numbers were unavailable.

"She could go for 20 rebounds a night," said Manogue coach Craig Holt. "She's new to our team this year. She got a lot of second shots tonight. She's tough to defend because she's long and left-handed.

"I don't think we played with much intensity in the first half. The second half our intensity was a whole lot better in th second half. I think we're a tough match-up with them because of our bigs. I felt like we had mismatches inside with our big people. They need to play up-tempo (against us)."

Kelly Lujan and Gabbi Concepcion led Manogue's early onslaught with five and six points, respectively. Manogue led 18-8 after one thanks to a four-minute drought.

The Miners scored the next nine points to go up 27-8. Concepcion had a trey to lead the barrage.

Neither team did much in the third quarter, but Manogue did increase its lead to 16, 36-20.

Two inside field goals by Carlson keyed an 8-4 run and gave Manogue a 21-point lead.

Carson didn't have a player in double figures. Eliza Matley led the way with eight, while Tiana McAllister-Daggs added seven with Kaitlyn Holmes and Savannah Smith adding six each.

It won't get any easier Friday, according to Ackerman.

"They have twins and a little guard who is a good player," Ackerman said. "We're going to have to play well to win."