Carroll coach makes  grandmother’s wish come true 

 By Greg Hoffman

Contributing sportswriter

 

Saturday night a sick grandmother’s wish came true when her four grandsons started a Carroll varsity basketball game together.

Carol Spesard has been battling cancer. She wanted to see her grandsons, brothers Carson and Aaron Spesard, and cousins, Adam Spesard and Drew Yoder, in a game at the same time. Coach Jeff Hodson made that wish come true when he started the four, along with Riley Eller, against Tri County. Mrs. Spesard was unable to attend, but the game, won by Carroll, was taped for her to see.

A 15-footer by Aaron Spesard started the scoring at 2-0. Two ties and five lead changes later saw Tri County up 11-10. A lay-up at the close of the first quarter by Brad Benson put Carroll up for good at 12-11.

The Cougars missed out on a big lead in the first period. They missed at least 7 easy shots that could have translated into 14 points to go along with Tri County’s 8 turnovers.

The Cougars could not shake the Cavaliers in the second quarter. Up 20-18, Carroll used a 6 to 0 run to take an eight-point half-time lead. They let 8 points get away in the quarter and 22 points in the half on poor inside shooting. The Cougars missed 11 point blank shots. They made only 9 of 24 (.375) shots from the field.

Carroll could not pull away in the third either. The Cavaliers closed the gap to 2 points at 30-28 before the Cougars took a 37-30 lead. By the end of the quarter, CHS was up 37-33. Tri County would get no closer than four the rest of the way as the Cougars built an 11-point lead late in the game.

Eller led Carroll in scoring with a game-high 17 points. Adam Spesard had 15 points and Carson Spesard just missed a double-double with 11 points and 9 rebounds. The bigger Cougars were out rebounded by the visitors 27-19. Carroll  had 18 steals as Eller had 5 and Benson and Yoder had 4 each.

Carroll was 17 of 42 from the field and an excellent 19 of 23 from the line. Tri County was only 15 of 30 from the field and 12 of 20 from the line.

The (2-0) Cougars will be on the road twice this week. Friday they travel to (0-4) Caston. The Comets have won 7 of the last 10 meetings. Saturday they are at (1-1) Lewis Cass. The Kings have won 10 straight from the Cougars.

JV records win

Carroll’s Junior Varsity defeated Tri County 44-22 for their second win of the young season.

The Cougars fell behind early at 3-0, but a Chad Griffin field goal put Carroll up for good at 6-5. The hosts lead 12-7 after one and 20-15 at half-time.

The Cougars started the second half scoring 16 points to Tri County’s 2 and by the end of the second half had outscored the Cavaliers 24-7 for the easy win.

Griffin led Carroll with 10 points. Tim Ruby, Mitch Whitham and Riley Johnson had 8 points e