Carroll's long road stint ends with win over Winamac
By Greg Hoffman

Carroll's varsity boys' basketball teams split a pair of road games last weekend. The varsity lost to Twin Lakes 58-36, but claimed the victory at Winamac, 59-48.

Friday's game was nothing to write home about. As a team, there were several no shows for the Cougars in this one. This was one of the team's worst shooting nights. They connected on only 7 of 28 attempts inside the arch and only 12 of 44 attempts overall. Coming into this game, Carroll's big men inside had collectively averaged 27.3 points per game and pulled down an average of 16.2 rebounds per game. On this night, they scored only 5 points and pulled down only 6 rebounds.

Twin Lakes out rebounded Carroll 36-19 and outscored the visitors 36-14 from two-point range.

A fielder by Riley Eller gave the Cougars their only lead at 4- 3 early in the game. The hosts quickly pushed their advantage out to 13-7 after one. Twin Lakes opened up a 9-point lead at 21- 12, but a free throw by Jacob Craig and 6 straight points by Eller pulled the Cougars back to within 2 at 21-19 with 1:07 left in the half.

With TL up by 4, a Kevin Ives trey pulled Carroll to within one, but a questionable tip in as the half ended gave the hosts a 25-22 lead.

The Cougars narrowed the gap to 27-25 on an Eller trey early in the third, but this would be as close as the Cougars would get. TL outscored the visitors 31-11 the rest of the way.

Eller was the only Cougar in double figures with 14 points. Ives added 9 off the bench.

Against Winamac, Carroll was prepared to take care of business. The Cougars held a 22-8 advantage after one. Jason Hazel led Carroll in the quarter with 8 points. Eller added 7 and Craig 5 to round out scoring.

Carroll slowed down in the second quarter. Their shooting went south as they connected on only 2 of 7 on threes and 1 of 8 inside the arch. Even with poor shooting the Cougars were still able to hold onto a 30-20 halftime lead.

Winamac came out strong in the third with a 16-6 run to tie the game at 36. A pair of 2-point fielders by Craig and a 2-pointer by Cory Mahan pushed the Cougars back out to a six-point lead at 42-36 after three. The Cougars held tough and did not allow Winamac to get any closer than four points the rest of the way.

Four Carroll players were in double figures as Adam Tussinger and Eller led all scorers with 14 points each. Hazel had 12 and Craig 11. The Cougars out rebounded Winamac 29-20 with Tussinger earning a doubledouble with 10 rebounds.

The Cougars finally will get to play at home this weekend when they host conference foe Tri Central (6-5, 1-0) on Friday night and Pioneer (2-9) on Saturday night. Carroll's last home game was Dec. 15 against Rossville.

JV drops two

Carroll's Junior Varsity dropped to 5-7 with a pair of close weekend losses - 30-26 to Twin Lakes and 30-28 to Winamac.

At Twin Lakes, the hosts never trailed in the game. Neither team reached double figures scoringwise in any quarter. TL led 9-4 after one, 18-10 at intermission, and 23-17 at the end of three. Brad Benson led Carroll with 10 points and Adam Spesard added 5.

The Cougars jumped out to a 10-4 lead after one at Winamac. They never trailed in the first half, but the hosts fought back to tie the game at 15 and 18 points before the Cougars were able to go in at half-time up 20-18.

In the third, Winamac took its first lead at 21-20. A trey by Primmer Zook put the Cougars back out in front, but this would be the only points for Carroll in the quarter. Winamac regained the advantage and led 25-23 after three. A trey by Yoder gave Carroll its final lead at 26-25 with 4:52 left in the final stanza. The game was tied two more times before a lay-in by Winamac with 8 seconds left gave them the win.

Benson had 9 points to lead the Cougars. Drew Yoder added 6.