Acrobatic drive Cougar Joe Smith wiggles his way to the basket for two points during Carroll’s loss to Central Catholic. Class A 8th-ranked Lafayette Central Catholic defeated Carroll Friday night 69-47 to win the Hoosier Heartland Conference outright with a perfect 5-0 record and finish regular season 15-6. Carroll finished 2-3 in the conference and ended regular season 11-9.

Coming into Friday’s match-up, the Cougars knew they would have to control the game’s tempo, shoot the ball well, and get key stops on the defensive end if they were going to upset CC on their court.

Carroll was patient on the offensive end early, working the ball for the good shot. The Cougars tied the game and held leads twice in the opening quarter on treys by Will Abdon at 5-4 and 8-7. With Carroll up 8-7 and 2 minutes left in the first quarter, Central Catholic got their uptempo game started. The Knights went on a 16-2 run, going up 2310 with 6:02 left in the second quarter. A trey by Jacob Kingery pulled the Cougars to within 9 at 27-18, but a last second shot by CC gave the hosts a 30-12 advantage at half-time.

Carroll came out hot from the field in the third. They scored 20 points on 4 of 7 shooting from behind the arc and were 8 of 13 overall. An Abdon 3-pointer pulled the Cougars to within 9 at 30-21, but the Cougars would get no closer. The Knights were even hotter in this quarter from the field, sinking 10 of 15 shots and 3 of 5 from behind the arc for 25 points. The hosts outscored the visitors 14 to 9 in the fourth quarter when both coaches cleared their benches.

The Cougars had a good team effort, but could not keep up with CC’s up-tempo game. Kingery had one of his better nights of the year, going 6 of 9 from the field to lead Carroll with 15 points. Abdon had 3 treys for 9 points. Riley Eller added 8 points on 3 of 5 shooting and Josh Beaver worked the boards for a game high 12 rebounds.

The Cougars shot 44%, 17 of 39 overall from the field and 50%, 7 of 14 on three tries, but were a poor 6 of 13, 46% from the line. The Knights were 8 of 14, 57% on trey attempts; 24 of 49, 49% overall, and 13 of 16, 81% from the line.

Next up for Carroll is the Class A Frontier Sectional. The Cougars will face Rossville in the opening gave on Friday at 6 p.m. The Cougars have a chance to avenge an earlier loss to the Rossville Hornets, who led the overall series 37 to 19. JV

The young Cougars finished the season, losing to the Knights 49-35. They matched last year’s record, finishing the season with 15 wins to 5 losses. They were 4-1 in the Hoosier Heartland Conference, while CC finished 16-4 and 5-0.

Central Catholic jumped out to a 12-1 advantage after one and had upped that lead to 18 points by half-time, 26-8. The hosts biggest lead came in the fourth quarter at 22 points, 4321. The Cougars cut the lead to 12 at 45-33 on a Nick Flora basket.

Adam Tussinger led the Cougars with 10 points, all in the second half. Jacob Craig added 9 pints (8 in the second half).

In the JV write-up last week, it was Jacob Craig with 12 points who was the high scorer for Carroll against Taylor.