Carroll barely squeezed out a 63-62 win over visiting Rossville Friday night as late missed free throws and turnovers in the final period nearly cost the Cougars. The win kept the Cougars undefeated at 5-0 and 1-0 in Hoosier Heartland Conference play while Rossville fell to 1-4 and 1-1.

Carroll took the early advantage at 12-2 as Adam Spesard went to work on the inside with 6 points. Carson Spesard added 4 points and Noah Allen 2. The Hornets closed out the quarter with a 5-0 run, but the Cougars retained a 12-7 lead.

The Cougars could not shake off the Hornets in the second quarter. The Hornets went with long range bombers, hitting 4 of 7, from three point range. By the end of the quarter they had out scored the Cougars 21 to 19, closing the gap to 3, 31-28, at half-time.

The third quarter saw one lead change and six ties. Rossville's Travis Perkins had 7 points and Aaron Martin scored 5 as the Hornets went on a 12-4 run to take the lead at 40-35. A trey by Drew Yoder and a bucket by Riley Eller quickly tied the game at 40 all. The teams went back and forth for the rest of the quarter and the period ended with a 46 tie.

Early in the fourth quarter it was all Carroll as the Cougars ran off 10 unanswered points. Adam Spesard's 7 points and a Kyle Geheb trey put Carroll up 56- 46. After building the nice cushion the Cougars started missing free throws and turning the ball over. The Hornets took advantage, scoring 6 straight to pull to within 4 at 56-52. The Cougars pushed their lead out to 7 points at 61-54 and led 61-57 with 11 seconds left. But a Martin trey for Rossville had the Hornets down by only 1. Free throws by Eller put Carroll up by 3, but the Cougars fouled and Perkins converted for RHS to close the gap to 63- 62. The Hornets forced the error but could not score as time ran out.

The Cougars had five turnovers in the final quarter, missed the front end of oneplus one twice and missed five straight free throw tries late in the game. They connected only 6 of 13 (46%) from the line in that period. For the game, Carroll was 14 of 25 (56%) from the line, while hitting 51% of their fielders, 23 of 45. Rossville was 23 of 61 (38%) from the field and 8 of 12 (67%) from the line. The big difference and what kept Rossville in the game was the visitors outscored their hosts 24 to 9 from behind the arch. Rossville connected on 8 of 25 (30%), while Carroll hit 3 of 15 (20%).

Adam Spesard had his first career double-double with career highs in scoring, 23 points, and rebounds, 13, to lead Carroll. Eller had 12 points, Yoder a season high 10 points, and Geheb his best floor night of the season with 7 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Martin led Rossville with 19 points. Perkins had 14 and Christian Egly 8.

Carroll is off the rest of the year and will get back into action Jan. 2-3 at the Clinton Central Holiday Tourney. Carroll will face Tri Central (0-5) in the first game, while host Clinton Central (1-5) faces Clinton Prairie (2-5). Rossville JV takes win

The young Cougars dropped their first game of the season to Rossville 38-28. They were never in this one mentally as the Hornets held them scoreless in the first period and led 9-0 after one. The Hornets pushed their advantage out to 13-0 before a Riley Johnson bucket gave Carroll its first points of the game. Rossville's biggest lead of 15 points came late in the first half. The Cougars were able to close the gap to 7 points at 35-28 late in the game.

Jarvis Simmons led Carroll in scoring with 9 points and Kyle Wildrick topped Rossville with 9. The Cougars committed 18 turnovers and had only two assists. From behind the arch, Carroll was a miserable 1 of 17 (6%) and only 10 of 50 (20%) overall.