Carroll held on Tuesday after nearly giving up a 19 point lead in the final quarter. The Tigers dominated the first 24 minutes and led 60-43 heading into the final stanza. Kaleb Booth and Nick Macke were shooting the three really well combining for 8 in the game. The Tigers defense had held Jevin Sullivan to 17 points through 3 quarters. He scored more than that in the 4
th quarter. Sullivan went off for 27 points in the 4
th, finishing with 44 points. The Comets scored 33 points in the 4
th after scoring 43 in the first three quarters. A Nick Macke assist to Treyton Goins for a layup stemmed the tide briefly for Carroll. The Tigers saw a 62-43 lead cut to 70-68 before the Goins layup. Carroll built the lead back to 76-68 before the Comets charged again. Nick Macke and Colby Christensen hit enough free throws down the stretch to seal the deal.
The Carroll Tigers continued their dominant ways by adding another victory to their undefeated season, beating Boone on Tuesday night. Right out of the gate, the Tigers dominated the Toreadors and never gave up the lead. The Tigers would escape the first quarter scoring 20 points and left Boone with only seven points. In the second quarter, it was much of the same dominant basketball from the top ranked team in the Raccoon River Conference. The Tigers left no room for the Toreadors to score leaving them with six points as they would go on to score 14 before the halftime. The lopsided score was in favor of Carroll by a score of 34-13.
Kuemper nearly evened their record at 3-3 heading into the break but saw it slip to 2-4 overall as St Albert edged away in the 4
th quarter outscoring the Knights 20-11. The Knights hung tough early down but 1 after the 1
st quarter and down 9 at half. They quickly changed that with a dominating 3
rd quarter and were up 5 heading into the final stanza. Kuemper shot the ball well from inside the arc hitting on 47.4% of their shots but only shot 10 for 31 from behind the arc with John Mayhall knocking down 5 and Mitchell Badding having 4 made threes.
John Mayhall led Kuemper with 21 points, Mitchell Badding added 16 points and 8 rebounds. Isaac Evans also scored in double figures with 11 points. Dawson Edwards handed out 5 assists.
The Carroll Tigers showed a lot of resolve on Friday night as they struggled early on the defensive end which hindered their offense and they found themselves behind the 3
rd ranked Ballard Bombers in a battle of number 2 vs number 3. Carroll didn’t want to get beat inside and the Ballard guards came out shooting the ball well. As all good teams do the Tigers adjusted at halftime and rallied in the 4
th quarter to take the lead late on a bucket by Kaleb Booth. The Bombers hit a shot to tie the game and then had a chance to win it but the shot didn’t go and the game went to overtime.
It wasn’t easy but the 2nd ranked Carroll Tigers improved to 5-0 overall and 4-0 in the Raccoon River Conference setting up a big matchup with 3rd ranked Ballard in Huxley on Friday. The Tigers fell down out of the gate but only 4-2, then answered with a 15-0 run to lead 17-4. The offense was moving the ball quick to find shots in the lane as Winterset was taking away the three in their zone defense. Carroll led 19-8 at the end of the 1st quarter and looked to be in control.
Some early turnovers in the 2nd quarter and Winterset got a couple shots to fall and gained some momentum. The Tigers saw their lead shrink to 24-20 late in the quarter but Tory Feldman who played with a ton of energy led a spark and helped Carroll have a 29-23 lead at half. It could have been 9 at the break but Levi Gurwell made a 3 from the left corner at the horn.