MBB: Dawgs struggle in loss to Chapel Hill
first half of Tuesday night's game with Chapel Hill. Bowman scored a
team-high 15 points, but Carthage dropped a 64-40 decision to
CHHS. (Photo by John Krueger)
CARTHAGE, Tx -- It's been a tough season for the Carthage Bulldog basketball team and the immediate future of the team might not be getting much brighter. Without two of its starters on Tuesday night the Dawgs struggled getting underway, scoring four first-quarter points and went on to lose to Chapel Hill, 64-40, here in Bulldog Gymnasium.
Carthage (4-11) had a tough time with the athletic size of Chapel Hill as the visiting Bulldogs continued to pound the ball inside and hit the offensive glass to hand CHS the setback.
"It's tough right now because we're missing a couple starters and we struggled with their size on the inside tonight," said first-year Carthage head coach Jon Haft following the loss. "I think we need to concentrate on staying within our game and not try to make the plays that we can't make because it causes us to make mistakes."
Meechie Bowman led the Carthage attack, scoring 15 points, including seven in the fourth quarter. O'Keeron Rutherford was the main player to battle with Chapel Hill's size on the inside, and he finished with eight points.
Skylar Allison added seven points for Carthage, while Ashton Robertson threw in six and Trevin Bishop and Stephen Lewis scored two points apiece.
Tee Goree missed the game with a stomach virus and Edward Pope is in San Antonio this week, preparing to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl football game.
Michael Harris led Chapel Hill with 17 points, while Anthony Kincade was a force on the inside, dropping in 16 points.
"We had some foul trouble and our legs weren't there to finish four quarters," Haft said. "We don't have the depth that I would like and that means our starters have to get extended playing time.
"We started the game moving the ball and trying to shortening the game and we actually did a good job early on. Most of our points came off transition because that gave us our best opportunity to score. But after that they started speeding up the game it wore us out and we were out of position most of the night.
"We have to outwork teams and we didn't outwork Chapel Hill. They outworked us and played four quarters and we didn't play four quarters."
Chapel Hill took the 9-4 lead at the end of the first quarter and added 19 points to that to widen the lead to 28-16 at the break.
The teams then traded baskets for most of the third quarter and Chapel Hill entered the fourth with a 48-32 advantage.
It became apparent in the final quarter that Chapel Hill had more depth than Carthage as CHHS scored 12 of the first 14 points of the quarter to lead 30-32 with 3:31 remaining and then coasted to the win.
Carthage will return to action Tuesday night when the Dawgs host Tatum (9th,JV,V), with the first game starting at 5 p.m. CHS will then open District 16-3A play next Friday at Pittsburgh.