Knights cage Cougars
By Greg Hoffman Contributing sportswriter

Working hard for 2 Carroll's Justin Brown (#3) slips around a Central Catholic defender during first round sectional action at Frontier. Adam Tussinger (#55) follows the play, however the Cougars came up short in the end, 58-37. Bill Stauffer photo

Carroll's defensive play against Lafayette Central Catholic was a lot better the second time around than a recent game at CHS, but the outcome was the same. The Knights downed the Cougars 58-37 in the first round of the Frontier Class A Sectional.

The big factor in the game last Tuesday night was Carroll's inability to handle CC's quickness on the defensive end. The Cougars had 26 turnovers that turned into layups for CC. The Knights had 30 points off of Carroll miscues.

Unlike the Feb. 23 contest, the Cougars were able to stay with the Knights early. A fielder by Riley Eller gave the Cougars the lead at 2-1. CC took the lead for good at 10-4. A trey by Eller and fielder by Jacob Craig pulled the Cougars to within one at 10-9. This would be as close as Carroll would get the rest of the night. The Knights led 12-9 after one.

Twelve second quarter turnovers by Carroll helped CC outscore the Cougars 18-7 in the period and to a 14-point advantage by half-time, 30-16. Carroll had 18 turnovers in the first half and the Knights had 11 steals. Defensively the Cougars held CC's two big men - Will Hubertz (20.7 ppg) and Daniel Mills (10.1 ppg) scoreless in the first half. The pair had 22 points in the first half of the Feb. 23 game. But on this night, Hubertz was held to 7 points and Mills to 2 points.

An Adam Tussinger fielder to start the second half pulled Carroll to within 12 at 30-18, but CC pushed their lead out to 21 points at 45-24 after three. They held their biggest lead of the game at 52-26 with 4.40 left in the game.

Eller led the Cougars in scoring with 12 points and Tussinger added 8 points. CC guards combined for 41 points. Dru Anthrop had 17 points off the bench with Sam Walker added 16 points and Jade Anthrop 8 points.

With the turnovers, Carroll only attempted 34 field golad and they connected on 17 of them for 50 percent, while CC was 25 of 47, 53%. There were only six free throws attempted in the game as CC was 4 of 6. The last time Carroll did not attempt a free throw in a game was on Jan. 6, 1979, at Winamac.