Carroll went up against two 3A schools last weekend and split the games in overtime. Last Tuesday they traveled to Western and defeated the Panthers to keep their win string alive at 10. The Class 2A, 7th ranked Cougars suffered their first defeat of the season at Northwestern on Friday night.

Drew Yoder's lay-up with less than a second left in overtime lifted Carroll to a 48-46 victory over Western. The Cougars accomplished several things with the win. The 10-0 start is the best in school history, surpassing the 1991-92 teams that started 9-0 and the 10 consecutive wins set the record for most wins in a row. The old mark was held by this year's squad and the 1991-92 and 1994 -95 teams. It was also the first time for Carroll to defeat Western there since 1996.

Neither team could gain control of the contest for long as Western's biggest lead was 5 points twice early at 5-0 and 14-9, while Carroll's biggest lead of 6 points came late in the third period at 37-31.

There were two ties in the first quarter as the hosts jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Carroll tied the game at 7 and 9 before Western took an 11-9 advantage after one.

Western upped their lead to 14-9 with six minutes left in the second period. Baskets by Adam Spesard, Yoder and Brad Benson gave Carroll its first lead at 15-14. Six lead changes and two ties later the teams went into the locker room even at 25 all.

Western took the lead back early in the third quarter at 27- 25, but Riley Eller's trey put the Cougars back up at 28-27. A 9- 4 Carroll run pushed the lead out to 6 points at 37-31 and at the end of three quarters were up 37-34.

Benson's basket early in the fourth gave the Cougars a 39- 34 advantage. Western quickly had the game tied again at 40 all with 4:54 left. Both teams started working the clock with every possession. Carroll had three attempts and Western one attempt of taking the lead down the stretch, but both came up empty.

Western looked to take control in the overtime period. They jumped out to a 44-40 lead. Carson Spesard split a pair of free throws to pull Carroll to within 3. The Panthers had their chances to extend their lead but missed the front end of a oneand one and followed a Cougar turnover with one of their own with less than a minute left.

Eller brought Carroll to within one at 44-43 on a lay-up with 40.9 seconds left. Western hit a pair of free throws. At 34.5 Western called time and went into a triangle-and-two defense to stop Carroll's three-point shooters.

The Cougars set up their offensive play during the same time out. 6'7" center Adam Spesard popped out at the top of the key and drilled a triple to knot the score at 46 with 19.4 seconds left. After a time out with 10.1 seconds left, Western attacked Carroll's defense, but Noah Allen knocked the ball loose near the top of the key. Yoder came away with the ball and was off to the races for the winning hoop.

Both teams had only one player in double figures. C. Spesard led Carroll with 11 points with Kyle Geheb adding a season high 9 pooints on 3 treys. A. Spesard also had 9 points and Eller 8. Carroll's bench outscored Western's bench 14-0. Western's Matt Reida led all scorers with 18 points.

Benson and A. Spesard led Carroll in rebounds with 4 each as the two teams had 20 boards each. Allen had a good floor game and handed out a gave high 6 assists.

Vs. Northwestern

Carroll's win string came to an end Friday night after Northwestern squeezed past the Cougars 49-47 in overtime. The Cougars knew it would be hard task to defeat the Tigers on their home court. Carroll's last win there was in 1995.

Yoder helped Carroll take an early 13-0 lead with a pair of treys. From here, Carroll saw its perfect start come to an end with two top scorers, Eller (16.1 points per game) and A. Spesard (16 per game) in foul trouble the rest of the way. With the scoring leaders on the side line, the Tigers outscored the Cougars 25-17 the rest of the half to pull to within 5 at 30-25.

Yoder, who was knocked out of the game with a migraine headache, was well on the way to his best game of the year. He finished the night by leading Carroll in scoring as he was 3- of-3 from behind the arch and 4 of 5 from the field overall.

The Cougars started the second half with Yoder out and Eller and A. Spesard on the bench. The Tigers rattled off 7 unanswered points to take the lead at 32-30. At the end of three they were up 34-33.

Northwestern was up 43-40 late in the fourth quarter when Geheb nailed a triple from the top of the key to tie the game at 43. The worst break of the game for Carroll came at the end of regulation play as A. Spesard grabbed a defensive rebound with time left on the clock and was fouled. The officials huddled and declared the foul came after time had expired.

In overtime the hosts took a 47-43 lead. A. Spesard hit a post basket and later hit two free throws to tie the game at 47 with 53.1 seconds left. The Tigers worked the ball and scored the winning basket with 18 seconds remaining. Geheb miss fired on a trey from the corner in the closing seconds and A. Spesard rebounded but his put-back was blocked.

"We did a good job of keeping our composure," said Coach Jeff Hodson. "I felt it didn't seem like things went well for us as far as the momentum, but we hung in there and we didn't loose our composure."

Along with Yoder, Benson had 8 points off the bench. A. Spesard and Allen had 7 points each. Carroll was 18 of 41 (44%) from the field, while holding Northwestern to 20 of 49 (41%). Hindering the Cougars for most of the season has been free throw shooting and Friday was no exception. The Cougars connected on only 5 of 13 from the line, Since the holiday tourney on Jan. 3, Carroll is 26 of 56 (46%) and in their 11 games this year, they are under 60% in seven of them.

Carroll will be at Delphi (2- 12) Friday night and then at Clinton Prairie (6-8) Saturday night.

Junior Varsity

The JV fell to 7-4 on the year with a pair of road losses - 48- 19 to Western and 51-36 to Northwestern.

The Cougars were never in the game at Western. They fell behind 11-2 after one, 23-7 by half-time, and 37-15 after three periods.

The Cougars shot a poor 21% from the field on 7 of 33 shooting. They were only 2 of 8 (25%) from the line. Tim Ruby and Chad Griffin led Carroll in scoring with 5 points each.

Carroll fared a little better at Northwestern, but still could not come out with the win. They fell behind 15-10 at the first stop and 28-22 after two periods. After three periods they had closed to within 5 points at 34-29. Northwestern then outscored Carroll by 10 points the final six minutes of the game.

Mitch Whitham led the Cougars with 11 points and Griffin added 8 points as the Cougars were 13 of 31 (42%) from the field and 9 of 12 (75%) from the line.

Carroll Athletic Director Shaun Rose reports that the recent Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser was a success. Total amount raised for the American Cancer Society is $785.85.