Darrell Moody: Tough finish for hoop squads

The high school basketball season ended at least one game earlier than Carson coach Carlos Mendeguia had hoped.

The Senators lost to Spanish Springs for the second time in two weeks, and it wasn’t pretty, especially in the fourth quarter when the Cougars ran away and hid from Carson.

The Senators were un-Carson like in handling the ball. They tried to play quick when that hasn’t been their M.O. all year. Spanish Springs, unfortunately, made them look silly more than once. It was tough to watch.

I think the best days are ahead for this program, however. Mendeguia returns starters Kyle Steele, Dilyn Rooker and Cameron Price, and he has Ian Schulz, Brandon Ruf, Jared Rooker and Asa Carter coming back off the bench.

The older Rooker handles the ball well and plays solid defense. He needs to develop an outside shot, however. Carter had his moments and showed explosiveness in getting to the basket and Steele needs to be more consistent handling the ball and make the smart play and not always try to make a sensational, NBA-type play. Price had a solid season, but he needs to make a full-time commitment to basketball, especially if he has any thoughts about playing at the next level.

The Carson JV team, which was dominated by freshmen, lost just twice all year. There is talk that as many as four sophomores will be up on varsity next year. Carson brought up several players from the freshmen and JV teams for the playoff game, but none of them played.

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As expected, the Carson girls were pounded by heavily-favorites Reno in the opening round of the playoffs.

Carson was a different team when Savannah Smith and her 14.4 points-per-game average went down with an injury. She has basketball IQ, and that’s something the rest of the team needs to develop before next season rolls around.

Whether anybody can step into Smith’s shoes remains to be seen. Carson had good JV and freshmen teams, but that doesn’t always translate to the next level. In some cases, good freshmen and sophomores are already on their varsity teams.

Madison Preston, Michele Perry and Gina Peacock are back next year. Peacock is having a tough school year health-wise. She suffered a concussion during volleyball and then was sidelined most of the basketball season by illness and then suffered a seizure against Reno. Hopefully she will get healthy soon.

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I’m bitterly disappointed with NBC.

What got into those lunkheads? I mean you televise the women’s gold-medal; game on NBC, a station everybody gets, yet you move the U.S.-Canada men’s game which everybody wanted to see to an alternate channel that not everybody gets.

Who is running the show over there?

Women’s hockey has gotten much better over the past four years, but men’s hockey is watched by many more people, and is a better, faster game, especially on the wider rink.

NBC missed the boat on this one.