RENO — The Carson High girls fought hard against Lassen, but couldn’t get over the hump.
The Senators fought back from double-digit deficits in the second and third quarters, but still dropped a 46-41 decision to the Grizzlies Saturday morning at the High Sierra Winter Challenge at Reno High School.
The loss drops Carson to 1-3 overall heading into Tuesday’s home game against Reed.
“Turnovers, we’re not taking care of the ball,” first-year CHS head coach Melissa Larsen said after watching her team turn it over 26 times, leading to 22 points. “We’re playing hard. We just have to correct some things. Basketball is a game of ups and downs, and we understand that. This was a game we had (I thought). They are a good team. I thought we were evenly matched.
“This is a work in progress, and I saw some good things today. It’s going to take time.”
A 5-minute drought in the first half enabled Lassen to open up a 22-11 lead. Five of Lassen’s eight points in the 8-0 run came off Carson mistakes.
Two free throws by Haley Garver and one by Ivy Pembrook trimmed the lead to nine, 25-16 at the half.
Carson maintained the momentum at the start of the second half, going on a 10-4 run to cut Lassen’s lead to 29-26 with 4:06 left in the third quarter.
Bri Alvarado (12 points), who had a red-hot third quarter on Friday, had six in that surge, while Lindy Lehman and Pembrook added a bucket apiece. The Grizzlies went 2-for-8 and turned the ball over three times.
The teams traded baskets over the next couple of minutes, but Lassen went on a 6-2 quarter-ending spurt to make it 39-31 after three.
“We had a very good third quarter,” Larsen said. “Basketball is a four-quarter game, and we need to finish. We’re not there yet.”
A putback by Garver (10 points) and a bucket by Pembrook cut Lassen’s lead to 40-35 with 6:08 left. That is when things went awry for the Senators, who started getting impatient and turning the ball over.
On their next five possessions, Carson went 0-for-3 from the floor and turned it over twice. Lassen took advantage twice, extending its lead to 44-35 midway through the period.
“We weren’t patient,” Larsen said. “We started to force things.”
Garver took an ill-advised shot when it was 40-35 and Pembrook, who finished with 11 points, missed a lay-up with the score 42-35. Sandwiched around those two plays were two possessions in which Carson turned the ball over without getting a shot up.
Carson trimmed the lead to 46-41 on baskets by Garver and Alvarado with 1:57 left, but the Senators went 0-for-2 from the floor, 0-for-2 from the line and turned the ball over without a shot down the stretch.
