Carroll girls enter sectional on five-game win streak
By Jim McCarter Contributing sportswriter

What a difference a year has made for the Carroll Lady Cougars basketball team. Twelve months ago Carroll had just lost its last nine regularseason games and promptly lost in the first round of the sectional to Lafayette Central Catholic, ending the 2006-07 season with 10-straight losses.

The Lady Cougars picked up two big wins last week to end the 2007-08 season with fivestraight victories and an 11-9 record. Carroll girls have not had a winning record since the 1997-1998 season when they went 15-7 and won the Class A Clinton Central Sectional.

The Lady Cougars got a firstround bye in Class 2A Sectional 37 at Clinton Central and won't play until the second game Friday night. They face the winner of Tuesday's Clinton Central/Delphi match-up. Carroll has not won a sectional title since 1998. That tournament was also played at Clinton Central.

Tri-County @ Carroll

As they have throughout their current winning streak, the Lady Cougars punished Tri-County with stifling fullcourt pressure to build a big early lead then coasted to a 51- 35 victory.

Carroll led 7-5 midway through the first quarter when coach Mike McCroskey went to the full court press. He got immediate results. Tri-County did not score in the last 4:11 of the quarter, turning the ball over five times in just over three minutes. The Lady Cougars took advantage of those miscues to score seven unanswered points for a 14-5 lead at the first stop.

"Our defense in the first half was awfully good," Mc- Croskey said. "Jaime [Mc- Carter] got her hands on a lot of basketballs tonight, and Jess [Yoder] is so strong. She's been improving all year."

Lay ups by Sarah Griffin and McCarter to open the second quarter stretched Carroll's advantage to 18-5, but the Lady Cavaliers fought back. A pair of 3-pointers by Alex Kurtz and a put back by Morgan Meyer cut the deficit to 18-13 with 5:06 to go in the half.

The Lady Cougars would have none of that, forcing six more turnovers and converting on six of 10 field-goal attempts to end the quarter on a 14-0 run for a 32-13 halftime lead.

"I was most pleased by how our girls responded to their run," McCroskey said. "They hit a couple of threes then we settled down and built the lead back up."

It was perhaps the best half of the season for Carroll against a Tri-County team that came into the game with a 13- 5 record. The Lady Cougars hit 12 of 23 field-goal attempts (52%), four of five free-throw shots and forced 13 turnovers while committing just six.

The third quarter was more of the same. Seven Tri-County turnovers in the stanza allowed the Lady Cougars' lead to balloon to 43-22 heading into the fourth quarter.

Quinci Eller paced Carroll once again with 17 points on 5- of-9 accuracy from the field and perfect 5-of-5 shooting from the free-throw line. Eller also had four assists and three steals. J Yoder scored 11 to go with 7 boards and 4 steals. Krystal Brazel scored 8 and shared team-high honors with 7 boards. McCarter also scored 8 to go with three steals and five deflections.

A. Kurtz led Tri-County with 9 points, while Brooke Kurtz and Jessy Ruemler pitched in 6.

"The strength of this team is that we have four or five kids who can score 10, 15 or 20 points on any given night," McCroskey said. "Tonight we finally got balanced scoring. It was a real team effort."

Carroll's junior varsity team and coach Katie Sewel finished the 2007-08 season with a 9-7 record, losing 20-13 to the Lady Cavaliers. Lucy Zook led Carroll with nine points.

Frontier @ Carroll

Frontier must not have scouted the Carroll girls basketball team lately. The Lady Falcons seemed completely unprepared for Carroll's fullcourt pressure, committing 12 turnovers in the first quarter. The Lady Cougars dominated the first period for a 14-2 lead and went on to post an impressive 49-27 victory.

It was Senior Night for the Lady Cougars and their four seniors made the most of it. Krystal Brazel led Carroll with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and Morgan Yoder added 8 points and three steals. Brooke Yoder scored 7 points, returning to the lineup for the first time after missing three games due to a knee injury while McCarter added four points, five assists and three steals.

Carroll's defense continued to make it tough for the Lady Falcons to get anything going in the second quarter. The Lady Falcons hit just 2 of 8 field-goal attempts in the quarter and found themselves trailing 28-11 at halftime.

The Lady Cougars led 30-13 when a 6-2 run by the Lady Falcons closed the gap a bit to 32- 19 and encouraged Carroll's coach to call timeout.

"After the timeout we started getting the ball to our flasher at the free-throw line," McCroskey explained. "Then Krystal and Jess [Yoder] knocked down some threes. Inside-out threes are the best."

Brazel and J. Yoder each hit a pair of 3-pointers from the right wing, and B. Yoder added another to give the Lady Cougars a commanding 49-27 lead after three quarters.

J. Yoder scored nine points for Carroll, while Reinke added 8 points and 5 rebounds and Eller scored 7.

"I thought we had tremendous energy the first half, but not as much in the second half," Mc- Croskey said. "To come back and play after the emotion of the Senior Night ceremony at halftime was really hard. Plus we've had five games in eight days and haven't had a real practice in a while, just low-key walkthroughs."