Senators hold off Manogue

It wasn’t one of Carson High’s most artistic efforts, but the Senators still managed to stay undefeated in Division I league play.

Carson used an 8-2 surge midway through the fourth quarter to break open a close game and knock off Bishop Manogue, 53-49, Friday night in a Sierra League contest at Morse Burley Gym.

The Senators improved to 3-0 in league play and 8-2 overall heading into Monday’s make-up game at home against Reno at 5:15.

“We knew what we were up against,” Carson coach Carlos Mendeguia said. “They are one of the top three teams (in Division I) and they have all their guys back. No lead is safe against them. The two games we scouted them they shot 55 3s. All five of the starters and a couple of guys off the bench can shoot it.

“Our main goal defensively was to keep them in front of us because they like to get to the paint and kick it out for a 3. The first half I thought we did a good job with that. The second half we got complacent.”

That’s an understatement.

The Senators used balanced scoring from Cameron Price, Kyle Denning, Asa Carter and Anthony Munoz to build a 29-16 with 4:19 left in the first half.

Carson started to get careless with the ball and away from what earned it a 13-point lead. Over the next 13 minutes, Manogue outscored Carson 20-3 to pull even at 36 with 7:27 left in the game on a driving layup by Remy Dillard and a putback by Collin Bernard.

Carson went 3-for-15 from the field in that span, turned the ball over 11 times and missed three free throws.

“We got away from our game plan,” Mendeguia said. “We started playing not to lose, and when that happens you make bad decisions. We weren’t patient with the ball running our sets.”

The Senators rebounded with a 13-2 run to take a 49-40 lead with 2:10 left in the contest.

Kyle Denning started the surge with a 3-pointer at the top of the key and Munoz knocked down a jump shot from the foul line. After Dillard scored, Schulz drained two free throws to make it 43-38 at the 5:05 mark. James Sandoval scored on a drive to the basket to make it 43-40, but two free throws by Carter, two by Kyle Steele and a layup by Cameron Price made it 49-40 with 2:10 left.

Bishop Manogue didn’t quit, cutting the lead to five two different times, 49-44 and 51-46, before a free throw by Carter and one by Denning in the final 50 seconds made it 53-46. Manogue got a meaningless 3-pointer by Zackary Wurm with 4.5 left.

After the game against Reno, Carson will break for a couple of days and get back to the drawing board.

“We have to clean things up running our offense,” Mendeguia said. “We have to work on our press break. We have to work on a lot of little things period.”