With two weeks to go in the Northern 4A season, Carson High's girls basketball team is sitting in a good spot.
The Senators , who entered Friday's game tied with Bishop Manogue, maintained their hold on the top spot with a 43-28 win over arch-rival Douglas at Morse Burley Gym.
Carson is 9-3 with games left against Spanish Springs, Wooster, Manogue and Galena. Carson has won eight of its last nine games, the only blemish being a road loss at Manogue.
"I thought we played pretty well," Carson coach Todd Ackerman said. "We held them scoreless there for a while (early). Defensively I thought we played well. Emily (Collins) and Savannah (Smith) both played well defensivelty. We were switching defenses sometimes."
It was the fourth straight game Carson has held an opponent to less than 35 points.
It was a disappointing loss for the Tigers, who are battling Galena for third place. Douglas started slow offensively, and never recovered.
"We've been playing pretty well," Douglas' Werner Christen said. "They're a good team. They pass and catch, and when you can do that, you have a chance to beat anybody.
"We worked on closing out (on Eliza Matley) in practice, but we didn't do a good job of that tonight. We didn't do a good job of carrying over from practice to the game."
Matley was a thorn in Douglas' side all night. The Carson senior, who is headed to Stanislaus State, led all scorers with 21 points. After looking a bit tentative on her first shot of the game, which barely grazed the rim, she looked much more comfortable shooting the ball the rest of the way.
"I'll be glad to see her go," Christen said, a smile on his face.
Matley had four points in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the game, but didn't score a point for the next 10 minutes. It didn't matter a great deal because Carson led 13-5 midway through the second period.
Then, it was like a light went on for Matley. She scored Carson's final 10 points of the half on a pair of treys and two baskets to give her team a comfortable 23-8 advantage at the half.
It seemed like Douglas couldn't figure out the best way to defend her, mainly because fo her ability to get to the basket. Sometimes the Tigers played her too tight and other times they gave her too much room.
"I was just adjusting to whatever they were doing," Matley said. "Whatever they did, I did the opposite. I stopped worrying about them flying out at me, and just focused on the basket."
The game started to get sloppy in the second half, particularly the third quarter with each team scoring seven points.
Baskets by Emily Collins and Matley stretched the Senators' lead to 28-10 with 3:46 left in the third quarter, but Douglas scored five of the next seven points to make it 30-15 after three.
Douglas, or rather Desiree Cage, scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to cut the gap to 30-20.
Carson bounced back by scoring nine of the next 10 points to stretch its lack back to 18, 39-21, with 2:53 left in the game.
Collins, who finished with nine points, started the surge with two free throws and Smith added a lay-up to make it 34-20 with 4:29 remaining. After Cora Moody drained a foul shot, Matley hit three straight free throws for a 37-21 edge. After a Douglas turnover, Cameron Sievers knocked in two foul shots to complete the surge.
Ebony Cleveland scored four straight points for the Tigers to make it 39-25 with 2:39 left, but the Tigers managed just three points the rest of the way. Carson missed seven free throws which stopped it from building on the lead.
When asked if he thought the Senators would be in this position, Ackerman said he's gone back and forth on that.
"At the start of the season I would have told you yes," Ackerman said. "After losing six straight to start the season I would have said no. We got a few wins there at the end of the Vegas tournament and that helped."
