Tigers pull inside job in win

She helps lead Douglas to victory over Senators

You can call this one an inside job. The Douglas High girls basketball team converted 23 field goals, all from inside the paint with 15 layups, on its way to a 59-36 regular season-ending victory Friday night at Morse Burley Gymnasium.

Corryne Millett scored 19 points, Leonna Mortimer 17 and Maddy Lowe 17 for Douglas (13-3 Sierra League, 21-5 overall) as the Tigers led start to finish in the rivalry contest.

The Tigers shot 13-for-28 from the free throw line, otherwise every one of their points came on shots from inside 8 feet.

“That’s just our mentality and we’re going to keep doing it,” Douglas coach Werner Christen said. “Our finishing has been great, and if we need to, we do have kids who can hit the outside shot.”

Carson (7-9, 12-14) knew exactly what was coming, acknowledged coach Nate Tolbert.

“If you watch the film on Douglas, they go to the hole, and if you can’t stop them, you can’t beat them,” he said. “I thought we had a pretty good game plan, which was to push the ball up the floor, to run the offense as long as we could and get to the glass. And that’s where we failed; we didn’t get to the glass often enough.”

The Tigers began the game with a 13-0 run before Carson got on the scoreboard when Madison Preston hit a 3-pointer off an assist from Kayla Aikins with 2:05 left in the first quarter.

Lowe scored on a putback to start the run.

Millett followed with a three-point play, McKenna Kynett fed Mortimer for a layup and then Kynett converted a layup off an inbounds pass to make it 9-0. Mortimer and Kaycee Battcher added single free throws and Kynett assisted Millett for another layup to complete a run that occurred over a span of 2 minutes, 41 seconds.

The Senators never came any closer than eight points the rest of the way. They were within 27-16 at halftime and 31-18 after Michelle Perry drove the length of the floor with a layup with 5:41 to go in the third quarter. Douglas answered, however, as Millett drove for a layup, Mortimer converted a free throw and Lowe drove inside for another score to push the lead to 36-18.

“If anyone broke our back, she’s the one,” Tolbert said of Lowe, a 5-foot-7 junior forward. “She kept attacking the basket, and that’s what we were trying to stop, but she always seemed to get around the corner.”

Melissa Glanzmann scored nine points and Perry eight to lead Carson offensively.