First-half barrage buries CHS

RENO — Going nearly 10 minutes without a point is tough to come back from against most teams.

Against Bishop Manogue it’s downright impossible.

The first-place Miners outscored Carson 21-0 in the first half en route to an easy 63-31 win Tuesday night in a Sierra League girls basketball contest.

The loss dropped the Senators to 7-8 in league play, while the Miners improved to 14-1. Galena won its game to move into a third-place tie with the Senators.

Carson still has a chance to take third place if it can upset Douglas on Friday and Galena loses its regular-season finale. If both teams win or both teams lose, Galena would be the No. 3 seed and Carson would be the No. 4 seed based on Galena’s sweep of Carson in the regular season.

Carson coach Nate Tolbert is obviously hoping for some big improvement over the next couple of days.

Stopping Douglas’ Leonna Mortimer is critical for success on Friday.

“She was a beast the last time we played,” Tolbert said. “She killed us inside.

“I think we’re pretty even at the guard spots. We have to do a better job inside and on the boards.”

One thing is certain, both teams should be loose considering both are already in the playoffs. Carson has more to gain with a win, as Douglas has second place wrapped up.

If Carson finishes fourth it will travel to Reno next Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game. If Carson can get into third, it would travel to Reed. Reed is beatable, Reno is not.

Tolbert, despite the lopsided loss to the Miners, was pleased after the game.

“We gave a better effort this time around,” he said. “Manogue is a good team.

“Our help defense needs a lot of work. We didn’t do a good job in that area.”

This was a game for all of about 2-minutes 47-seconds.

It was 5-all during that stretch. And, 10 minutes later, it was 26-5.

Manogue scored 13 points in that stretch off Carson turnovers. Many of the mistakes Carson made were unforced.

Unforced errors has been a constant with Carson all year.

Breezi Holt, who’s headed to Pacific in Stockton, had six to lead the way for the Miners. Madison Lewis worked her way inside for a couple of hoops.

A layup by Maddie Preston (11 points) and a 3-pointer by Andrea Maffei trimmed the lead to 28-10 with 3:12 left in the half.

Four straight points by Holt and a bucket by Christa Young got the lead back above 20 at 34-10. The half ended with the Miners on top 36-14.

Carson went 5-for-14 from the floor in the opening half, but turned the ball over 14 times, taking away 28 possible points.

The Miners scored the last 10 points of the third quarter to boost their lead to 54-20.