HARRISBURG — The bad news is Carson’s girls lost 62-53 at Hickory Ridge on Senior Night.
The really bad news is that Hickory Ridge’s Zharia Brown won’t celebrate her Senior Night until 2017. The 6-foot freshman is as strong and fast as she is tall and her 17 points and 16 rebounds lifted the Ragin’s Bulls (12-8, 10-5) into a third-place tie in the SPC with Central Cabarrus.
“She’s big and athletic and a tough matchup for most teams,” HR coach Tolanda Simmons said. “What I liked most about her tonight was how she ran the floor. She got as many transition points as she did points off rebounds.”
Junior Alex Allen scored a career-best 25 points for the Cougars, but it wasn’t close to enough. Fueled by that Senior Night emotion, Hickory Ridge grabbed control of the game with a 24-point second quarter and never let go.
“We started OK, but ourminds just weren’t in the right place tonight,” Allen said. “We’ve got to be strong defensively and we weren’t strong in the second quarter. We did do better in the second half.”
That big HR second quarter had the Cougars looking at a 12-point deficit at halftime.
“We weren’t ready to play, as simple as that, and it was evident,” Carson coach Brooke Misenheimer said. “We set the tone pretty early that it wasn’t going to be our night.”
Carson’s defense did get frequent stops in the third quarter, and it pulled within 51-41 when Allen dished to Keara McClary for a layup.
It was 53-44 after a Kate Cole free throw with 5:52 left, but Brown delivered a huge three-point play and KR’s Kiara Davis followed it with a jumper to put the Ragin’ Bulls back in charge.
Sophomore guard Laura McManimen hit a 3-pointer for each ‘M’ in her surname and also had five assists.
“I thought we started out kind of sluggish,” Simmons said. “We’re a team that needs to get the ball and go and play defense for 94 feet. In that second quarter, especially, we got back to doing that.”
The loss cements the Cougars (10-11, 8-7) into a fifth-plce finish in the SPC. Carson’s own Senior Night is scheduled for Friday against Cox Mill.
CARSON (53) — Allen 25, Cole 9, Gray 7, Jackson 4, McClary 2, Huffman 2, Hunsucker 2, Roberson 2, Clark, VanVoorhis.
HICKORY RIDGE (62) — Brown 17, McMcManimen 11, Davis 9, Evans 7, S. Miller 5, Means 4, Wallace 4, Ratliff 2, C. Miller 2, Rowden 1.
Carson 12 12 17 12 — 53
Hick. Ridge 12 24 15 11 — 62