5A girls: Carroll pounds Goddard to reach semifinals

Before every Bishop Carroll girls basketball game, coach Taylor Dugan asks her team what they are playing for.

The list tends to change on a game-by-game basis, but one thing has remained the same since Ashley Carrillo, who was the team’s leading scorer, suffered a season-ending knee injury in the last regular-season game.

“One of them is definitely her,” Dugan said. “It’s cool to see how she’s become our heart and soul. She wants to be out there so bad, so we want to play for her.”

The late-season adversity has fortified Carroll and now it finds itself one win away from the state championship game after the Golden Eagles smothered Goddard in a 47-27 victory at the Class 5A tournament on Thursday at the Kansas Expocentre.

Ten Carroll players scored in the game with Ashton McCorry (12 points) and Abby Sauber (nine) the only ones with more than six points.

That is something Carroll views as a positive, as no one player has had to fill Carrillo’s void. It’s been a team effort starting with junior guard Brynn Maul stepping up as a vocal leader.

“You have to step up if you want to keep going and I feel like everyone has stepped up,” Sauber said. “That’s one thing I love about our team. It’s not just one person. It’s everybody. And that’s hard to guard.”

That is exactly what Goddard took pride in, as it had won 18 games and returned to the state tournament for the first time since 2009 without a single 20-point scorer this season.

But against Carroll’s tenacious defense, Goddard could have used one.

Instead, the Lions fell behind early and never recovered once Carroll took a 24-14 lead into halftime. Goddard, which scored less than 40 points for the seventh time, finished shooting 27 percent and committed 14 turnovers.

“We’ve struggled all year offensively and it really showed up tonight,” said Goddard coach Kevin Hackerott. “You spend a lot of energy trying to get out of the hole and it gets tough.”

While Goddard never scored more than seven in a quarter, Carroll never scored less than double digits thanks to efficient shooting that featured 43 percent from the field, 46 percent beyond the arc, and 76 percent from the line.

“We were all feeling it out there,” McCorry said. “That was a fun game to play in.”

But to keep the fun going on Friday night, when Carroll plays two-time defending champion Leavenworth in the semifinals, it might require the best game of the season from the Eagles.

This is a team that has learned a lot through adversity, Dugan said, and one that she believes ready for the challenge.

“It’s a good time to be fearless,” Dugan said. “That’s kind of been our motto this season. They go out there and don’t play with any fear and that’s a good way to play this time of year.”

Leavenworth 42, Newton 40 -- Up against the two-time defending champions, Newton forced a steal from its press that produced a layup that would have tied the score at 38 with 1:16 remaining.

But the contested shot didn’t fall and after a turnover on the next possession, Newton never had another chance at a tie.

“I can’t say it out loud,” Newton coach Randy Jordan said when asked what was going through his mind in the moment. “But that’s just part of basketball.”

Leavenworth missed all 11 of its shots in the first quarter and trailed Newton 10-1. But the Railers committed 12 turnovers – they had 24 total – in the second quarter alone, as Leavenworth outscored Newton 12-1 to take a lead it never relinquished in the second half.

Kyndal Bacon led Newton with nine points. Payton Roberts (five points, eight rebounds) is the team’s lone senior.

“We made a game out of it and that’s what we came here to do,” Jordan said. “We gained a lot of experience today. We’ll be back.”

This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 10:59 PM with the headline "5A girls: Carroll pounds Goddard to reach semifinals."