By David Shaw
dshaw@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE ó The Carson girls basketball team is still searching for answers.
It didn’t find any in its NPC opener ó a 58-24 loss to visiting West Iredell on Tuesday.
“I really thought this was a team we could compete with,” Carson coach Brooke Misenheimer said. “It was a very winnable game. This could have been a good early win and a confidence-builder for us.”
Instead, it was anything but.
The Cougars shot only 14 percent from the field (5-for-37) and were a dismal 13-for-30 from the free-throw line.
“We’re a work in progress,” said junior Kaylene Livengood, who made Carson’s first two baskets and finished with six points. “And we’ve got a long way to go.”
It didn’t take long for the Warriors to show Carson who was boss.
They constructed a 10-3 lead after one quarter and were ahead 21-4 when Tree Cooper shouldered her way in for a layup midway through the second.
“We’re a young team, but we’re fast,” first-year West Iredell coach Phil Fox said. “That’s our asset. I think we just had too much speed for them.”
Misenheimer said the Cougars failed three tests in the game.
“Our three goals tonight were to harass them defensively, which we didn’t do,” she said. “Take care of the ball, which we didn’t do. And to box out, which we also didn’t do.”
Carson (1-2, 0-1) played decidedly better in the second half but was still outscored 33-14. Livengood and sophomore Marissa Sellers converted shots in the third quarter. Then, with 3:10 remaining in the game, Sellers got a nice hand from the crowd when she buried a 3-pointer from the left side.
“We’ve got to hit our shots, our open looks and our free throws,” Misenheimer said. “And we had, what, 34 turnovers? It wasn’t like they were putting some great pressure on us. We did it to ourselves. It was just a disappointing game.”
If there was a positive for the Cougars, it was the fourth quarter.
They scored 10 points and got their final field goal from Megan Meismer with 2:36 remaining. West Iredell’s second-stringers spoiled the fun by scoring the game’s last nine points.
“It was hard,” said Meismer, a junior forward. “We finally started hustling and doing what we were supposed to do. But even in the fourth quarter, we didn’t play as well as we can.”
Afterward, Misenheimer tried to say all the right things.
“We had a win against North (Rowan),” she said. “It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win.
“Now we’ve got to take the good, we’ve got to fix the bad and we’ve got to move on. And the biggest part of that is our lack of focus right now. We need to focus on little things right here and we’re not doing it.”
WEST IREDELL (58) ó Renwick 13, Walden 10, Tuttle 9, Frye 8, Cooper 7, Chapman 7, Johnson 2, Keever 1, Sigmon 1.
CARSON (24) ó K.Livengood 6, Sellers 5, Meismer 4, M.Livengood 3, Brown 3, Hough 3, Ciscel, Khan, Marshall, Heggins, Settlemyer.
W. Iredell 10 15 14 19 ó 58
Carson 3 7 4 10 ó 24