Jonathan Randall
RENO — If you can’t score, you can’t win. The Carson High boys basketball team is learning that the hard way.
The Senators dropped to 2-5 in league and 5-11 overall following a 64-38 loss to Bishop Manogue on Friday at Primm Family Gymnasium.
“It’s pretty hard to win if you can’t score points,” said a frustrated Jordan Glover, the Senators’ coach. “We’re not taking care of the ball.”
In the past six games, Carson has scored 225 points (37 a game) and you won’t win many games scoring in the 30s. In that span, Carson has scored 40 or more three times.
This one was close for a half, as Manogue walked off the floor at the break with a 26-21 lead thanks to 12 points from Gabe Banuelos, who led all scorers with 23. Only Jonny Randall’s 10 first-half points kept the Senators within striking distance.
“We just couldn’t make a lot of shots in the first half,” said Manogue coach Moe Golshani. “Kolton Frugoli, our leading scorer, averages 15 a game, and I think he had one point at the half.”
Banuelos was the exception, but his first-half points came off drives to the basket or fast-break layups.
The game got away from the Senators in the first four minutes of the third quarter, as the Miners went on a 14-3 tear to grab a 40-24 advantage. The Senators got a 3-pointer from Randall, but they also turned the ball over six times in that span leading to eight Manogue points.
“We have a system, and we believe our system will catch up to teams by the middle of the third quarter and early fourth quarter, and we live by that,” Golshani said. “We push the ball relentlessly. We make teams work extra hard defensively. We sprint from spot to spot on offense. Teams are mentally frustrated and physically beat up. It’s dependent on us being in better shape than anybody else, and so far it’s worked.”
Carson cut the lead to 41-30, but a 3-pointer by Dalton Scolari keyed a quarter-ending 7-3 run that expanded the lead to 48-33. Randall scored with 2:07 left, and those were Carson’s last points of the quarter.
“Our biggest concern going into the game was Trent (Robison),” Golshani said. “He is very aggressive. I wish we had him on our team. I like the way he plays. Last year he killed us. We wanted to limit him to 12 or 14, and I think we did a good job of that.
“Randall is a good 3-point shooter, and we were trying to limit his touches. He hit a couple in the first half. In the second we really focused on denying him the ball.”
Randall managed the aforementioned 3-pointer in the final half. He led Carson with 13 points.
Carson did close to 53-36 with 5:24 left, but the Miners scored nine straight, increasing the lead to a game-high 26 points. Josh Rolling had two buckets and Gio Depaoli had a 3-pointer.
“Manogue made some good adjustments,” Glover said. “They zoned us a little bit, and Manogue started hitting some shots in the second half.”
