Spanish Springs too much for Carson High boys basketball

SPARKS — After two tough losses, the Carson High boys basketball team was hoping the third game would be a charm.

That wasn’t the case. Spanish Springs scored 18 of the game’s first 20 points en route to a 65-21 win Tuesday night.

Carson remained winless on the season, and hosts Hug at 7 p.m. on Friday. The game was played with a running clock over the final 15-minutes 39-seconds.

“I don’t know what to say about this one,” said Carson coach Jordan Glover. “We knew they were going to shoot it well in their gym. We knew they would come out and push it. They are a good team; a well-coached team.

“We don’t push ourselves in practice, and some of that is on me. We have to go harder in practice. We need to make practices harder than games. We have to be ready to show up and play.”

Carson was certainly no match for Spanish Springs’ pressure. In the first half alone, Carson turned the ball over 15 times leading to 21 of the Cougars’ 45 first-half points.

“Offensively, we had trouble getting the ball past half court,” Glover said.

Spanish Springs coach Kyle Penney said it was nice to see his team get off to a fast start.

“If you don’t take care of the ball, your chances of winning the game are not really good at any level,” Penney said. “Taking care of the ball is a big piece.

“We were able to see them at Fernley, and they do a lot of things that Reno does, and we see Reno twice a year, so it wasn’t that hard to prep.”

Carson certainly had no answer defensively for Jalen Townsell, who scored seven of the Cougars’ first 12 and finished with a game-high 20, including a couple of flushes.

Townsell opened the game with a 3-pointer, had a layup and a putback to lead the Cougars to a 12-2 lead. He made it 26-9 with a hard drive to the basket with 6:32 left, and then drained a left-corner 3-pointer to make it 29-10. After a putback by Cordell Stinson, Townsell knocked in another 3-pointer and a free throw to make it 35-10. He scored on a dunk to help cap a 15-0 run and make it 41-10 with 58.5 left in the half.

“He is fun to watch play,” said Penney, referring to his frontcourt star. “The expectations are high for him. He just has to keep doing what he’s doing.”

Carson had just one field in the second quarter, and that came on Abel Carter’s hard drive to the hoop. The other three points came from the free-throw line.

Despite the running clock, Spanish Springs ended the third quarter with a 10-0 run to up its lead to 59-14. Brock O’Connell and Jesse Coats had 3-pointers.

For the game, Carson finished with 22 turnovers leading to 30 points.

The Senators shot 18 percent for the game unofficially.