Carroll homecoming royalty Seniors Josh Holda and Kaitlin Kennedy were crowned Carroll homecoming king and queen at last Friday night's game with Tri Central. Their court included Thomas Gillam, Riley Eller, Mason McCain, Adam Spesard, Megan Ayres, Alisha Hedrick, Lauren Bowman, and Megan Garrison. Photo provided by Carroll yearbook staff The Class 2A No. 8 Carroll Cougars (9-0) matched their best start in school history with a pair of wins at home over the weekend. They defeated Tri-Central (0-12) 55- 42 Friday and Pioneer (3-8) 90-44 Saturday.

The 9-0 start also tied the record for consecutive wins set by the 1991-92 Carroll team that started 9-0 before losing to Winamac. The 1994-95 team also had nine consecutive wins (Dec. 30- Feb. 10).

Friday night's game against Tri-Central was Carroll's first in 20 days due to three cancellations. The affects of the lay-off were not evident early as the Cougars took an 11-2 lead and held a 16-8 advantage after one.

In the second period, the affects of the long lay-off came to the front. Carroll could only muster 6 points in the quarter and with a 21-12 lead midway in the quarter, they were outscored 10-1 by the Trojans. The visitors had tied the game at 22 by halftime.

A bucket by Adam Spesard and a trey by Riley Eller gave Carroll a 27-22 lead early in the third quarter, but Tri-Central fought back with a 9-2 run to take its first lead at 31- 29. The Trojans led 33-30 before the Cougars used an 8-2 run of their own to reclaim the lead for good at 38-35 after three.

The Cougars continued their run in the fourth quarter with 12 unanswered points to take a 50-35 lead. Adam Spesard took over with 8 points and Carson Spesard and Brad Benson had 2 points each in the run.

"Our defensive rotation in the first 20 minutes was just awful," said Coach Jeff Hodson. "We gave them the baseline and let them get too many offensive rebounds. Tri-Central did a good job all night and took (Riley) Eller out of the game.

Adam Spesard had a double double with 18 points (14 in the second half) and 14 rebounds. Drew Yoder had 11 points. Eller was held to 7 points, but handed out 5 assists. Carson Spesard had 4 assists and 7 rebounds.

Saturday night it was all Carroll. The visiting Panthers were no match as the Cougars put together a total team effort for their best game of the season.

The Cougars were up 24-8 after one quarter, 49-23 at half-time, and 76-36 at the end of three quarters. Coach Hodson used his bench for the final eight minutes of play.

On the defensive end, Carroll forced Pioneer into 29 turnovers, had 15 steals, and out rebounded the visitor's 34-23. The Cougars held the Panthers to 13 of 36 shooting (36%) and on the offensive end, handed out 24 assists and hit 37 of 61 (61%) from the field.

Individually, Carroll put their players in double figures. Eller had a season-high 26 points (19 in the first half) and handed out 6 assists. Adam Spesard had 12 points; Yoder added 10 points, 4 steals and 4 assists; and Carson Spesard and Tim Ruby had 9 points each. Carson also pulled down 6 rebounds. Kyle Geheb had 8 points and 6 rebounds and Noah Allen had a good floor game with 6 assists, 4 steals and 6 points.

Carroll travels to 3A Northwestern (7-3) Friday night.

JV splits games

The young Cougars fell to 7-2 on the year after splitting weekend games. Friday, Tri- Central came from behind to beat the Cougars 35-32, while Saturday, it was the Cougars who came from behind to defeat Pioneer 38-35.

Against Tri-Central, Carroll was up 11-8 after one and pushed its lead out to 18-11 at half-time. Carroll was outscored 24-14 by Tri-Central in the second half. Carroll had no one in double figures as Ruby, Chad Griffin and Riley Johnson had 6 points each.

It was more of the same Saturday against Pioneer. Carroll led 14-10 at the first stop and 22-19 at intermission. In the third quarter, there was a lead change and two ties before Pioneer took a 33-27 advantage. Ruby scored Carroll's final 8 points of the game to give the Cougars the win.

Ruby led all scorers with 21 points. Griffin added 8 points.