No. 1-rated Nashville slips by Terriers, 53-43
Carbondale's boys basketball team is very young, and its schedule is brutal. That's a bad combination for having great outcomes.
The Terriers (5-8 record) lost two to two great teams last weekend, but they showed signs of what can be within a year or so.
The Terriers dropped a 10-pointer (53-43) to the no. 1-rated 2A high school team in the state last Saturday afternoon at nearby Nashville Arena. The Hornets rode to victory on Isaac Turner's hot hand shooting from the arc.
Turner had 33 of the 53 total points for the Hornets, including five three-pointers in the first half for 21 of the Hornets' 28 points (28-19 Hornet lead at half). Carbondale tends to go into offensive black holes when they make so many mistakes that they can't even get a shot off.
That funky situation occurred in a dismal second quarter, when they could only score three points because of turnovers and bad shot selection. Nashville outscored them that quarter 16-3, which was disheartening since the Terriers actually held a 16-12 lead at the end of the first period.
"Bad shots and shot selection were the margin of victory for Nashville," said Carbondale coach Troy Barton after the loss. "And Turner has a college career ahead for him."
In this game, turnovers were not too much of a factor. The Terriers had 13, but Nashville had more (14). Rather, the margin of victory was reflected by free throw shooting.
Nashville made seven more from the charity stripe, which was almost the margin of victory (10 points). And though it was a game of runs - mainly by Nashville - Carbondale actually came back from being down by 11 at the 6:54 mark of the third quarter, and led 31-30 with 4:14 to go in that third.
But the Hornets are not no. 1 for nothing. They outscored the Terriers 17-4 in a run that started with 2:31 to go in the third and ended with a 49-35 lead with five minutes to go in the game.
That run was basically the game as, though Nashville could only manage four more points the last three minutes of the contest, the Terriers could only produce eight.
The 54-46 Terrier loss to Mt. Vernon last Friday night was, again the story of the Rams NJ Benson. The 6-foot-8, 240-pound Missouri State University signer had three alley oop dunks during a game in which he again scored more than 20 points against the Terriers.
The Rams led 54-38 with 4:13 to go in the game, but the Terriers came back with a run of 8-0 to make the margin of Ram victory eight (54-46).
Carbondale will play in the prestigious Salem Winter Tournament this week and weekend.