Miners take advantage short-handed Carson boys

The three-game stretch of Douglas, Manogue and McQueen is a brutal one, and thus far the Carson Senators are 0-for-2.

Ethan Dillard scored 25 points to lead the league-leading Miners to an easy 60-39 win over Carson Tuesday night at Morse Burley Gymnasium.

The Senators, 3-4 in Northern 4A play, will try to get off the snide when they visit McQueen on Friday in a crossover game.

This, unfortunately, turned out to be a mismatch early. Carson defenders had trouble staying in front of Manogue point guard Niles Lujan, and the Miners' defense forced turnovers, blocked shots and changed shots all night.

And, to make matters worse, Carson had to play without guards Trey Jensen (illness) and Carlos Carrillo (back).

"Their defense is very underrated," said Carson coach Bruce Barnes, whose team turned the ball over 20 times and shot just 38 percent from the field. "I think they play very good defense.

"We had to play some guys out of position (because of Jensen and Carrillo). To play a team like Manogue without two of your guards ..."

And make no mistake about it, the Miners like to pressure you, especially with their half-court trap. And when you don't have a true point guard as is the case with Carson, it's not going to be pretty.

"That is what we try to do most of the time," Manogue coach Bill Ballinger said. "We do it with defense. Most of it (offense) comes from defense. Niles (Lujan) forced a lot of stuff.

According to Barnes, Lujan is the ringleader for both the offense and defense. He scored 12 points and continually set up his teammates.

"Niles makes them tick," Barnes said. "We tried to take time off the clock on offense; get comfortable. Their defense causes you to play the transition game which is what they want to do. That's their game not ours."

Dillard also is tough to stop as the 25-point night would indicate.

"In transition we lost him three times, two of those times it was in the first quarter," Barnes said.

Dillard had 10 in the first quarter, as the Miners drained four 3-pointers in the opening eight minutes en route to a 19-8 lead. Lujan scored five points in the final three minutes of the half to give his club a 32-18 advantage.

A bucket by Chris Steele made it a 12-point game in the opening seconds of the second half, but a layup and 3-pointer by Dillard made it 37-20 with 6:36 to go.

The lead stayed between 16 and 19 points the rest of the third quarter and early in the fourth. A little 6-3 run, thanks to two buckets by Brian Barnes and one by Tyler Collins cut the lead to 53-39 with less than four minutes to go. Manogue finished the game with six straight points.

Barnes led Carson with 13 and Ty Keefer added 12, six of those coming in the final three minutes of the first half.