Carson boys drubbed by hot-shooting Miners

RENO - The Carson High Senators knew Bishop Manogue would come out firing. What they didn't know is that they would be helpless to stop the league-leading Miners.

The Miners knocked down 11 3-pointers, including seven in the first quarter, en route to an easy 94-62 win in a Sierra League game Tuesday night.

Carson dropped to 7-2 entering Friday's home game against Wooster (7:15 p.m.).

"At the start of the game they shot the ball well," Carson coach Bruce Barnes said. "They shot it as well as any team has shot it against us.

"It wasn't just one guy. One guy hits a couple and it rubs off on other guys. We tried to make them put it on the floor, and they just drive and then kick it out and somebody knocks down a shot. They absolutely lit it up."

It started early and Bobby Hunter was the catalyst. Hunter drained four 3-pointers, Niles Lujan added two and Patrick John added one as the Miners shot 73 percent for a 29-16 lead after one quarter.

Manogue started in a triangle-and-two defense in an effort to stop Brian Barnes and Andrew Johnson, both of whom had big games in the first meeting of the teams. Pat Smith and Brennan Shaffer picked up the slack with five and six points, respectively, in the first quarter.

"We wanted to make sure that we held Brian (Barnes) and Johnson to under 10 points," Manogue coach Bill Ballinger said. The duo was held to eight combined, six by Johnson. Barnes didn't score until the fourth quarter.

It was 21-16 with 1 minute, 25 seconds left but Hunter, who finished with 31, and John hit 3-pointers. Lujan finished an 8-0 run on a drive to end the first quarter.

Carson did slice the deficit to eight early in the second quarter on a 3-pointer from the corner by Shaffer and buckets by Josh Peacock and Johnson.

However, an 11-3 run in the next two minutes enabled the Miners to build the lead to 42-26 with 3:35 left in the half. Ethan Dillard started the surge with a layup, but it was Steven Carlson who provided the real spark with a layup and 3-pointer. Carson managed to trim one bucket off the lead the remainder of the half, but still trailed by a whopping 50-36.

The lead climbed to 25 after three periods thanks to a late 6-2 run in the final minute. Manogue led by 30 five different times in the fourth before Dillard's 3-pointer late in the game gave the Miners their biggest lead of the contest.

Shaffer finished with 16, Trey Jensen added 14 and Smith finished with 13.

What was overlooked is the Miners' defense. They pressured way out high until the final buzzer, making it tough for Carson to get its offense started.

"I've always thought their perimeter defense was outstanding," coach Barnes said. "They put on a lot of pressure."

"Defense was key to the game," Ballinger said. "They (the players) get credit from me. I expect the treys to go in, maybe not as often as they did tonight but we spend 45 minutes a day shooting 3's and if we don't knock them down we run."