Cougars finish 3rd in holiday tourney
By Greg Hoffman Contributing sportswriter

Carroll put together two good games at the Clinton Central Holiday Tourney. They finished 1-1 for third place after falling to Clinton Prairie 56-55 on a rare four-point play with 2.7 seconds left. Saturday night the 2-5 Cougars defeated 0-8 Tri Central 71-61.

The Cougars took a 6-0 lead Friday night on three baskets by Jacob Craig. They could not hold on to the lead as the Gophers came back for a 14-all tie at the end of the first period. In the second quarter, the Cougars missed their first seven field goal attempts giving Prairie the opportunity to open up a 22-14 lead with 4:18 left in the half. By half-time the Gophers were still up, 29- 22.

Six unanswered points by the Cougars to start the second half pulled them to within one at 29-28, but Prairie held the lead for a 43-37 advantage after three. The Gophers opened the fourth quarter with four straight points. Drew Yoder and Justin Brown hit back-to-back treys to bring Carroll back into the game, down only four, 47-43 with 4:50 left in the game. The Cougars continued their comeback and with 13.7 seconds left an Adam Tussinger fielder gave the Cougars the lead at 53-52. A pair of free throws by Craig had Carroll up by three with 8.5 seconds remaining. But the unlikely happened, with 2.7 seconds left, a Prairie player hit a trey and was fouled. He hit the free throw for the one-point win.

Craig led all scorers with 18 points. He had a double-double with 12 rebounds, too. Tussinger had 15 points and 8 rebounds and Carson Spesard added 8 points.

In Saturday's consolation game, it was a tight first quarter with the Cougars up by only two, 18-16. Brown, in his first start, led Carroll in scoring with 5 points in the quarter.

The Cougars had the hot hand to start the second quarter, going up by 13, 32-19. Tri Central had whittled at the lead and was down by 7, 38-31, at intermission. Yoder, off the bench, and Craig led Carroll in scoring with 8 points each in the quarter.

Tri Central outscored Carroll 17-10 to start the third quarter, tying the game at 48. The Cougars used a basket and an awesome alley-opp play from Brown to Craig to go up 52-48 after three. Tri Central quickly tied the game at 52, but 5 points by Craig helped up the Cougars up for good at 57-52.

Craig had another doubledouble night. He led all scorers with a career-high 26 points and 13 rebounds. Yoder also had a-career high 10 points. Kevin Ives added 9 points and Brad Benson, 8 points. Brown had 7 points and 5 assists. Carroll's bench outscored Tri Central's bench 28-8.

The Cougars shot over 50% from the field for the second time this season, hitting 26 of 46 shots (54%), while holding Tri Central to 24 of 61 (39%).

Next up for Carroll will be a home game Saturday night against Eastern. Carroll holds the series lead at 20-18.