Carroll girls’ defense stops rival Kapaun

It took until the second half, but Bishop Carroll’s girls basketball team was able to shake off the holiday break Tuesday night.

The Golden Eagles (6-1, 6-1) outscored rival Kapaun Mount Carmel 29-18 in the second half and held on for a wild 45-37 City League victory.

Early on, both teams were shaky, combining for five turnovers in the first 63 seconds. Carroll committed seven in the first quarter, and Kapaun had five.

The Crusaders (4-2, 4-2) righted themselves first, sparked by senior guard Rachel Hastings, who scored seven of her nine points in the quarter, pushing Kapaun to a 14-7 lead at the end of the period.

Carroll battled back in the second quarter, holding Kapaun scoreless until 59 seconds before halftime, when Brenna Monty’s layup broke a 14-14 tie.

Josie Allen hit two free throws for the Eagles to create a 16-16 tie, but Jade Mayberry hit a three-pointer as the halftime buzzer sounded, giving Kapaun a 19-16 lead.

“It’s never good to go into halftime with the momentum on the other team’s side,” Carroll coach Taylor Dugan said. “And that’s what happened going into halftime.

“But I feel like we came out in the third quarter with a little bit more intensity. Our goal was to control the tempo in the second half, and I think the girls did a good job of that.”

In the third quarter, Carroll stayed close on two three-pointers by senior guard Whitney Bockover, and some of the free throws that were missed in the first half started to fall.

The Eagles’ constant was getting the ball inside to senior forward Ashley Carrillo, who combined with Bockover to score 10 of Carroll’s 13 points in the period.

“Whitney’s always been a spark for us,” Dugan said. “And that was no different in this game.”

Carrillo scored four more in the pivotal fourth quarter, where Carroll erased a one-point deficit after three quarters and began to slightly pull away.

“When (Kapaun’s Anna) Roulston had three fouls in the second quarter, we knew we had to get it inside to Ashley,” Dugan said. “And try to get it where she would get her fourth foul or play off of (Carrillo) because she didn’t want to get her fourth foul. What we were looking for was to feed it into Ashley.”

Senior forward Josie Allen made two baskets and 3 of 4 free throws in the final period. Her baskets came back to back and helped Carroll take the lead for good, 41-37, with 1:57 to play.

Kapaun was held to seven points in the final quarter by a smothering Eagles defense.

“We pressed them the entire game,” Dugan said. “Our goal was to keep the press on as long as it was working. We got a few five-second (calls) and a couple 10-second calls.

“In the first half, we would force a turnover, then we’d give it back to them. We were just trading turnovers at that point. We knew in the second half we couldn’t do that anymore.”

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Carroll girls’ defense stops rival Kapaun."