Carson girls baketball win third straight, improve to 6-4

  RENO -- The Carson Senators' girls basketball team earned a few days of rest.

  "Yeah, I spent most of the time after the game talking to them about getting healthy and resting up," smiled Senators coach Todd Ackerman after a workmanlike 48-29 victory at Wooster Friday night. "We've had a quite a few girls sick the last few days. I just told them to take care of themselves this weekend, rest up and get ready for next week."

  The Senators, who never trailed against the Colts, improved to 12-12 overall and 6-4 in the Sierra League with the victory. Wooster fell to 9-15, 3-7.

  "This was a good win for us," Ackerman said. "But it was a game we had to win, needed to win and it was a game we should have won. This keeps us right in the hunt in our league."

  The Senators started slowly and found themselves in a 9-9 tie after one quarter despite five early points from Gina Bianchi. Bianchi hit a 3-pointer for a 7-4 Carson lead three minutes into the game but Wooster's Briahna Hendrix answered with a 3-pointer of her own to tie the game at 9-9 with 40 seconds left in the opening quarter.

  "We only had nine girls at practice the last couple days because we've had people sick," Ackerman said. "So we came in here not really knowing what we were going to get. But we got the effort I was hoping for."

  That effort paid off in a dominating second quarter as the Senators took a 25-12 lead at halftime. Bianchi connected on a short jumper and Brandi Vega hit a 3-pointer for a 14-9 lead to jumpstart a 14-0 Carson run to open the second quarter. Whitney Nash also drained a 3-pointer to cap off the run.

  "I think we came out ready to play," said Vega, who finished with nine points, all in the first three quarters. "It was their homecoming and they were excited. So you never know how a team is going to come out and play you. But we were ready."

  Vega had a steal at midcourt and a layup for a 29-16 Carson lead with just under four minutes to play in the third quarter. Nash hit her second 3-pointer of the night to give the Senators a 32-17 lead 30 seconds later.

  Wooster cut Carson's lead to 10 (32-22) with 2:20 to go in the third quarter on a 3-pointer by Lauren Miller and a layup by Maria Magana but the Senators regained their composure as Cassie Vondrak scored inside and Vega drilled two free throws to close out the quarter with Carson up 36-22.

  "We did a nice job controlling the tempo of the game," Vega said.

  Wooster, which began the game with just nine players, had three players foul out. The Colts played the entire fourth quarter with eight players, the final three minutes with seven and the last 16 seconds with six active players.

  Bianchi scored four points in the fourth quarter to finish with a game-high 13. Nash finished with eight as the Senators got at least two points from nine different players.

  "We did a real nice job of sharing the ball," Ackerman said. "Wooster does a good job of getting in your face but that's only a problem if you stand around. That's not a problem if everyone rebounds, everyone passes the ball and everyone takes open shots and we did that."

  The Senators will return to the court Tuesday (5:15 p.m.) at Carson High against Damonte Ranch.

  "I told our seniors, 'We only have a few games left (in the regular season),'" Ackerman said. "It goes by fast. We need to have a sense of urgency and get the job done. And we did that (against Wooster)."