Carroll (10-10, 4-1) went into last week’s competition with the chance for a Hoosier Heartland Conference championship. The Cougars kept that hope alive Tuesday night with a 62-38 win over visiting conference foe Clinton Prairie (4-16, 1-4), but Friday at Lafayette Central Catholic (16-5, 5-0), the kings of the conference put the Cougars away 70-48.

The Knights have dominated the Hoosier Heartland Conference with their fifth straight conference championship. They have won 16 consecutive conference games, as well as 30 straight home games.

Carroll stayed with the Knights early. There were three lead changes before a put back by Seth Johnson tied the game at 10 after one period. The second period saw Carroll take the lead on a Noah Allen basket and a three by Drew Yoder gave Carroll a four-point lead at 17-13. CC came back to tie the game at 17. Back-to-back baskets by Allen and Kyle Geheb gave the Cougars a 21-17 lead, but again CC came back with four straight free throws to tie it at 21. Free throws by Tim Ruby gave Carroll its final lead of the night, 23-21, going into the locker room at half-time.

Neither team shot that well in the half as Carroll was 9 of 24 and held CC to 6 of 22 shooting from the field. The Cougars had 9 turnovers and CC 10 in the first half.

The second half started with a Seth Johnson fielder giving Carroll a 25-21 lead. The Knights took over from here, going on a 19 to 0 run over the next five minutes. The Cougars trailed 45-30 after three periods.

Down 47-30, the Cougars used an 8 to 2 run to pull to within 11 at 49 to 33 with five minutes left in the game. The Cougars were outscored 21 to 10 the rest of the way

The Cougars connected on 18 of 50 from the field but a poor 2 of 20 from the threepoint range. They were 10 of 16 from the line. Central Catholic was 21 of 65 from the field and 22 of 26 from the foul line.

Allen led Carroll with 10 points. Eric Miller and Ruby had 8 points each. The Cougars were out rebounded 35 to 21 as S. Johnson and Ruby had 4 each. Both teams had 13 turnovers.

The Cougars never trailed against Prairie. After two ties an Allen fielder put Carroll up for good at 6 to 4. The Cougars scored 7 unanswered points and led 19-12 at the end of the first quarter. Prairie would get no closer the rest of the game, trailing Carroll 35- 19 at the half and 44-26 after three periods.

Defensively the Cougars held Prairie to 17 of 52 shooting from the field while connecting on 26 of 60 themselves. Carroll won the board battle 42 to 26 behind Geheb’s 12 and S. Johnson’s 10.

Allen led all scorers with 18 points. S. Johnson had another double-double with 11 points. Geheb added 9.

The Cougars faced the Oracles in the opening round of Sectional play Tuesday night. Game results are available on the Comet website, www.carrollcountycomet. com.

JV split

Carroll Junior Varsity (9- 11, 3-2) ended regular season play with a win over Clinton Prairie, 39-35, and a loss to Central Catholic, 49-29.

The Cougars almost gave the Prairie game away after leading the game until midway through the fourth quarter. The Gophers took their first lead at 33-32 that proved short-lived when Blake Seward hit a 2-pointer for the Cougars, starting a 7 to 0 run to put the visitors away.

Seward led Carroll in scoring with 14 points. Logan Gaines added 10.

At CC, Blake Cromer and Aaron Spesard hit threes to put Carroll up 6-0 before the hosts stormed back with 19 unanswered points for a 19-6 lead. The Cougars could never recover, trailing 19-11 at half-time and 37-16 after three quarters.

Seward and Cromer split 16 points to lead the Cougars in scoring.