Opportunity knocks for CHS

Carson High’s girls basketball team was opportunistic to say the least Friday night against Wooster.

The Senators, playing without a starter and key reserve for the second straight game, scored 34 points off Wooster turnovers en route to a 61-46 win at Morse Burley Gym.

Carson improved to 5-3 in league and 9-8 overall entering Tuesday’s 5:15 game at Galena.

The Senators, however, will reportedly be without Ivy Pembrook and Bri Alvarez indefinitely. They were removed from the team for a non-basketball/school incident.

Carson trailed once in the game, 3-2, and the game was tied twice at 7 and 9-all, respectively. Other than that, the Senators pretty much had things in hand, though the Colts shaved a double-digit lead to five points midway in the third quarter before the Senators regained control.

“I was pleased with our offense,” Carson coach Nathan Tolbert said. “That’s one of the best scoring games we’ve had. I wasn’t happy with the fact that they scored 46. I think we were lackadaisical which is uncharacteristic. We needed to find a different spark, and tonight Bailey (Allen) and Andrea (Maffei) provided that. They both played very hard.”

Carson led 18-12 after one, and then thanks to Michelle Perry (17 points), Maddie Preston (16 points) and Melissa Glanzmann (4 points), stretched the lead to 34-17 with a 14-5 surge in the first 3-minutes 20-seconds of the third quarter. Perry started the barrage with a three-point play, Preston followed with a 3-pointer and Glanzmann added a lay-up. After Tara Garcia (18 points) scored for Wooster, Preston knocked down another trey to make it 31-14. Leilani O’Daye countered with a 3-pointer, but Perry had a free throw and Glanzmann scored on a nice drive to the basket to make it 34-17. A 10-4 run by led by Garcia’s six points, cut Carson’s lead to 38-27 and gave the visiting Colts some momentum heading into the second half.

Carson came out stone cold in the third quarter, missing its first 12 shots. That enabled Wooster to cut the deficit to 39-34. Garcia had a 3-pointer and lay-up to lead the way.

The Senators finally got on track in the final 2:31 of the period, going on a 10-2 run to stretch the lead to 49-36 after three. Kayla Aikins started the surge with one of her four baskets, Preston added a couple of lay-ups, Allen had a lay-up and Perry added another basket. Aikins is starting to show some offensive life, and she’s playing with much more confidence.

“One of these days Kayla is going to explode and have one of those nights,” Tolbert said.

“Michelle is making some good decisions. She probably leads the team in making the right decisions. She played well tonight and shot the ball well.”

The teams played on near-even terms in the final quarter, as the Colts were never able to get the lead under 10 points.