Carver girls dominate, boys outlast Northside in wins

The Carver girls and boys basketball teams continued their hot starts to their 2017-2018 seasons with road victories over Northside Friday. The Lady Tigers pummelled the Lady Patriots 82-27, while the Tigers silenced the Patriots with a 72-55 victory.

The Carver girls very rarely had the size advantage last season, but it was apparent from the opening jump that they had the upper hand on Northside. Unfortunately for the Lady Patriots, what immediately followed the game’s beginning did not go in their favor.

Northside took a 2-1 lead in the opening minute before the Lady Tigers cranked the intensity up and promptly scored 17 unanswered. With their lockdown defense and an ability to take advantage of Northside’s lack of ball control, the Lady Tigers thundered past the Lady Patriots and ended the first quarter with a 30-5 lead.

As dominant as the first quarter was, the final eight minutes of the first half were worse. Even with several inexperienced players on the court, Carver completely shut down Northside, outscoring the Lady Patriots 25-1 to go into halftime with a 55-6 advantage.

While Carver’s trajectory toward 100 points didn’t continue, there was no denying how dominant the team’s latest win was. Carver head coach Anson Hundley praised Northside for being a young but well-coached team and said that Friday’s game gave several of his girls a good learning opportunity.

“(This game) gave us a chance to play some of our younger girls and work on some things we haven’t work on a lot this year,” Hundley said. “It’s a chance to see who’s ready to actually step up in games where the older girls are playing a lot. This is important just to see who’s ready to step into some of those roles.”

Freshman Khamya Edmonds may have benefited the most from Carver’s latest game. She showed her potential as a piece in the Lady Tigers’ lineup, leading Carver in scoring and rebounding with 17 points and 10 rebounds, respectively.

“She is a good freshman,” Hundley said. “She’s learning the system and what to do. She’s going to be a great asset to us in the future.”

The Carver boys seemed to be in control after a strong first half against Northside, but the Patriots fought back to make things interesting.

The Tigers held the Patriots at bay for the majority of the first two quarters, leaving Carver ahead 32-21 at halftime. The Patriots started slowly pulling within reach of the lead early in the second half, hovering around a 10-point deficit for the better part of the third quarter.

Though Northside continued to threaten into the fourth quarter, Carver found enough to prevent the necessary offensive surge from the Patriots.

Four Carver players ended the contest in double digit scoring. Devin Flowers led the way for the offense, scoring 15 points in the win. Jalen King put up 14 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals, AJ Watts finished with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals and Xaiyhir Jacobs recorded 10 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals.

“We definitely didn’t play one of our better games,” Carver head coach Warren Beaulah said. “Mentally, we were just out of sync. I think it was more mental preparation. There were a lot of missed free throws and a lot of missed layups. There were a lot of points that we just left out there.”

Beaulah pointed to senior Jacobi Cunningham has part of the reason Carver held onto its lead. When Cunningham entered the game in the second half, he brought a level of defensive tenacity that was lacking as Carver slowly started to lose control of the game. Cunningham forced several Northside mistakes once he entered and helped the Tigers shake out of what began to look like a sleepwalk.

Cunningham finished the game with three points and six rebounds.

“We put (Cunningham) in the game, and he gave us a spark,” Beaulah said. “He gave us a little energy on defense we needed. I think that got us over the hump.”

Beaulah said Friday’s win could be a needed wake-up call as far as his players’ pre-game mindsets are concerned.

“No matter who we play, we’re always going to take that team’s best shot,” Beaulah said. “We are the defending region champions. Sometimes I think they forget and think we’re just going to come in and (the other team) is going to lay down. That’s not going to happen.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 10:39 PM with the headline "Carver girls dominate, boys outlast Northside in wins."