Miners use big second half to push past Senator boys basketball

A second half slip in energy saw Bishop Manogue boys basketball pick up its second win of the year over Carson Tuesday night, 71-52.

The Senators have shown their ability night in and night out to hang with the Sierra League’s best foes, but have had some youthful issues with staying competitive for 32 minutes.

Tuesday night was no different as Carson put together a strong first half in which it led 34-31 heading into the halftime locker room.

A number of Senators got involved on the offensive and defensive ends in the opening half.

Will Breeding had several blocks in the first eight minutes along with a spinning bank for two. Breeding also assisted on a Joey Summers triple from the win for Carson’s first bucket.

Nathan Smothers hit Parsa Hadjighasemi for three toward the end of the quarter before another Summers triple ended the opening quarter with Carson trailing by four.

In the second quarter, two strong takes to the rim from Smothers tied the contest at 21-all before Breeding’s second bucket of the game put Carson in front.

As the two teams traded buckets, the Senators found an edge after Gage Mills drew a charge, giving Summers a chance for a floater on the other end.

The 34-31 lead the Senators built in the first half not only left the team confident, but built some energy in Morse Burley Gymnasium.

“We come out knowing we need to repeat that game plan with more intensity,” said Carson head coach Jordan Glover. “We had to expect they would comeback and we couldn’t weather the storm.”

It was Bishop Manogue that came out of the locker room with more energy, streaking to a 15-2 run to quickly gain a 10-point lead just over three minutes into the third quarter.

“I thought our man (defense) was good in the first half, but then we let them drive past us in the second half,” said Glover.

The run continued until the final minute of the third quarter when Smothers once again tried to spur a Carson run.

The senior captain hit a corner three and drove the lane to bring Carson within eight, 53-45, to end the third quarter.

However, the Miners didn’t let Carson get any closer, putting together a 16-1 run to open the fourth quarter and take a commanding 69-46 lead with less than four minutes to go in regulation.

UP NEXT: Carson (9-13, 2-5) controls its own destiny the rest of the way with three league games left, starting with a road battle at Damonte Ranch (12-10, 3-4) Friday night. The Senators likely need to win two of their final three games in order to clinch a spot in the postseason.

“We show spurts of being a team that can beat anybody. … We have hope. Now we have three games to put it all together,” said Glover.