CHS girls lose in opener

Carson High first-year coach Melissa Larsen was determined not to let Mallory McGwire beat the Senators Tuesday night.

Using 2-3 and 1-3-1 zone defenses, Carson held the Oregon-bound McGwire to 11 points. However, CHS couldn’t overcome the play of Daranda Hinkey and Dominique Harding.

The duo combined for 32 points, as the Huskies rolled to a 57-12 win over the Senators at Morse Burley Gym, spoiling Larsen’s head-coaching debut.

The game was played with a running clock for the final 8-plus minutes. In high school basketball, once the lead reaches 40 points, the clock is only turned off for timeouts and injuries.

“Our job was to contain McGwire, and I thought we did a good job on her,” Larsen said after a lengthy post-game chat with her team. “I didn’t want Mallory to beat us. They shot the ball well. They are a great scoring team. You live by the sword or die by the sword (shooting 3-pointers), and they hit the shots.

“We have to take care of the ball better. We had too many turnovers (39) and we gave them too many (offensive) rebounds. We have to be in control and be patient on offense. We have to run our offense, and when we get the easy shots, we have to make them. Reno plays good defense, and we didn’t handle the pressure well.”

The 39 turnovers translated to 34 Reno points. That isn’t a good stat against any team, let alone a powerhouse like Reno.

Hinkey made her presence felt early, knocking down three triples in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the game. She finished with 14 for the quarter, sparking Reno to a 25-5 first-quarter lead.

“She will get those (open) looks,” Reno coach Shane Foster said. “We have a few kids (Hinkey, Harding, Mikayla Shults) that can really shoot the ball, and Daranda has been working hard on her 3-point game. They are going to get those shots if teams double Mallory.

“They kept fronting and backing against Mallory, so I went to some of our younger players to run some of our man offense.”

Carson didn’t sacore in the last 3-plus minutes of the first half, going 0-for-5 from the field and turning the ball over six times.

Bri Alvarado nailed a 3-pointer to open the second quarter, but the Senators went the next 6-plus minutes without a point, going 0-for-3 from the field and turning the ball over 11 straight possessions. Reno scored nine unanswered points to build its lead to 34-8 with 1:06 left in the half. Arianna Schmidt ended Carson’s drought with the first of her two field goals, but free throws by McGwire and Shults made it 36-10 at the half.

“I think we turned the ball over 20 times in the first half (actually 15),” Foster said. “I don’t think we did a great job on the boards. That is something we talked about at halftime.”

The Huskies opened the second half with 11 straight points to extend their lead to 47-12.

Harding hit a 3-pointer and then a free throw to make it 40-12. Hinkey drained three free tosses, Shults added one and McGwire scored her last bucket of the game to make it 47-10. Lindy Lehman scored on a nice drive to the basket to make it 47-12 with 2:09 left in the third. Two baskets by Harding and one by McKain Murdock extended the lead to 53-12 and put the Senators into a running clock situation.

Carson went scoreless in the final quarter and Reno scored just four free throws.

Carson shot just 21 percent from the floor, and went 1-for-9 from the free-throw line.

Carson opens play in the High Sierra Challenge at 6 p.m. Thursday at Spanish Springs. The Friday and Saturday games will be played at Reno High.