Carson Senator Joseph Summers shoots during the game between the McQueen Lancers and Carson High Senators at Carson High School, Carson City, NV
The Carson boys basketball team had just come back to force a 40-40 tie midway through the fourth quarter and appeared to have forced a turnover when an errant pass was heading out of bounds.
But the ball instead hit one of the officials on its way out of bounds. Everyone seem to freeze for a moment. McQueen took advantage and went on to score on a layup to take a 42-40 lead. That turned out to be the turning point as McQueen went on to beat Carson 51-48 on Wednesday at Tom Andreasen Court.
“McQueen kept playing and we stopped playing,” Carson Coach Jordan Glover said. “You’ve got to play until the whistle blows and the whistle didn’t blow.”
Carson was then called for a moving screen and McQueen went on to score again to take a 44-40 lead. CHS eventually fell behind 49-44 but had one last rally.
Lucas Vanbrow scored on an off balance shot off the glass for Carson to cut the deficit to 49-46 and Parsa Hadjighasemi cut the deficit for the Senators to 49-48 when he made two free throws.
McQueen, though, answered with a basket to make it 51-48 and CHS went on to commit a turnover. But after McQueen missed two foul shots Carson had one last chance to tie the game. Nathan Smothers’ desperation three-point shot from the corner, though, failed to draw iron.
Carson took an early 5-4 lead when Hunter Rauh hit a three-pointer. The Senators, though, struggled from the floor for most of the first half but managed to hang around and actually led 13-12 after one quarter.
McQueen took a 22-17 lead but Hadjighasemi hit a three just before the end of the half to pull the Senators to within 23-22 at halftime. Glover attributed his team’s first half struggles to an 18-day layoff.
“We started off really slowly,” Glover said. “That was probably our worst shooting game as a group. We came out focused. I just don’t know if we were game ready.”
McQueen went on a 6-0 run to take a 29-22 lead to begin the third quarter. Carson again chipped away, going on an 8-1 run to close to within 31-30. The run was capped by Daniel Escalante’s baseline drive for a basket for CHS. McQueen, though, went on a 5-0 run at the end of the quarter to take a 36-30 lead going into the fourth period.
But the Senators battled back to tie the game 38-38 on back-to-back three-point plays. First Hadjighasemi hit a three to pull Carson to within 38-35. Joseph Summers then scored on a more traditional three-point play when he was fouled after her drove down the lane for a score. Summers converted the three-point play to tie the score 38-38.
The ultimate difference of the game came at the foul line as McQueen was 11-of-19 while CHS was 7-of-12.
“We’re getting better every day,” Glover said. “Our guys are buying in. We’re getting better every game.”
Hadjighasemi scored 12 points, Summers had 11 points and Smothers added six points for Carson.
