Cougars fall in season opener
By Greg Hoffman

Carroll graduated nine players from last year's 12-10 ball club and the only returning player to log any minutes and gather experience was sophomore Riley Eller. Eller was the fourth leading scorer on last year's squad.

Carroll's inexperience came to the surface several times as the Cougars had their ups and downs and lapses on the offensive and defensive ends against visiting Tri-County. The visitors won Carroll's home opener 55- 48.

Tri-County opened up a 5-0 lead and was up 8-2 when Carroll went on a 7 to 0 run. A trey by Jacob Craig gave the Cougars the lead at 9-8 with 3:37 left in the quarter. The Cougars were up 15-12 after one.

The Cougars used a 7-2 run to open the second stanza and went up 22-14. Tri-County fought back to close out the half down 22-19. The Cavaliers continued their run in to start the third quarter, outscoring Carroll 9 to 0 to take the lead at 28-22. By the end of three, they were still up, 39-32. When the smoke cleared, Carroll had been outscored 20 to 10 in that quarter, committing six fouls and turning over the ball eight times.

To the Cougars' credit, they did not quit. They came back and tied the game at 43 all with 3:28 left in the game. But they could not sustain their momentum

and Tri-County quickly regained their lead at 47-43. The Cavs used 8 of 10 free throw shooting to hold the lead for the win.

Eller led the Cougars with 16 points. Adam Tussinger had 14 and Craig and Jason Hazel split 12. Craig had 9 rebounds and Hazel handed out 6 assists. As a team, Carroll shot the ball well, going 17 of 33 for .515 from the field, while Tri-County was 17 of 42, .405. The Cougars had 19 turnovers and gave up 10 offensive rebounds to Tri-County, while garnering only one for themselves.

The Cougars will be tested Dec. 2 through Jan. 13 with 11 games on their schedule, including 10 on the road. Next up for the Cougars is a trip to North

White. Carroll holds the edge at 20-3.

JV win easily

Carroll's Junior Varsity jumped out to a 5-0 lead early against the Cavaliers and easily cruised to a 41-17 win.

The Cougars led 9 to 2 after one, however Tri-County closed to within three several times in the second quarter, but the Cougars were able to keep them at bay. By half-time the Cougars were up 17-10. They put the visitors away in the third quarter, outscoring them 17-3 for a 34- 13 lead.

Brad Benson led the way for Carroll with a game high 12 points. Primmer Zook had 8 and Adam Spesard added 6.