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CARROLLTON - The noise level in the Carrollton High School basketball gym was noticeably quiet on Thursday night.
Ironically that would turn out to be the underlying theme of the night for the home team.
The new year of 2019 got off on the wrong foot for the Hawks as they lost to the Routt Catholic Rockets 52-38 in a WIVC conference game on Thursday night. That is the second loss to the Rockets in nine days as Carrollton fell to Routt 62-48 in the first round of the Waverly Holiday Tournament on Dec 26.
The Hawks fall to 5-8 and 0-3 in the WIVC.
“We gotta step up on defense, and we gotta make sure we secure the boards. You can’t let a kid hit five threes in the first half and expect to win any game,” Gabe Jones said. “It’s the rebounding. It’s the defense. It’s everything. We gotta figure that out.”
Carrollton head coach Matt Goetten declined to comment.
Jones finished with a team-high 22 points for the Hawks.
Routt sophomore guard Cory Ronan also notched 22 points. He collected 18 in the first half and was 5-of-9 from beyond the arc during that span.
“Cory can shoot the ball really well, and he’s gone in streaks this year. The thing worst thing that happened to us was halftime came because he cooled down,” Routt head coach Will Whalen said. [Jones and Ronan] were two kids leading their teams and doing the bulk of the scoring.”
Routt led Carrollton 12-11 after the first quarter but proceeded to outscore them 16-6 in the next and led 28-17 at halftime.
The Hawks were doing their best to deny Routt’s leading scorer for the season, Drew Winters, but that allowed Ronan to have the freedom to get open shots, and he took advantage.
In the second half, it was Dylan Marshall’s turn to push the Rockets offense forward. He recorded 12 of his 16 points in the second half, including scoring eight consecutive points to give Routt their biggest lead of the game at 36-20 in the third quarter.
“Dylan does a good job of taking the ball to the basket and finishing, which is something that nobody else on the team was able to do tonight, but Dylan thankfully was,” Whalen said. “We were able to get a few offensive rebounds and putbacks. Carrollton struggled a little bit at making some shots there, and that certainly helped us.”
Marshall’s basket that got the lead up to 16 came as a result of the Hawks being unable to carrell a defensive rebound after three shot attempts by the Rockets. On the next whistle, Goetten subbed the entire team out for a minute.
“He checked us out and told us what we needed to do,” Jones said. “It’s kind of a kick in the gut, but it was well deserved.”
Goetten seemed to get his message across as Carrollton closed out the quarter on a 5-1 run and trailed 37-26.
After a Ronan basket, the Hawks scored six straight points to cut the deficit to 39-32, but they would get no further as the Rockets did enough at the free throw line while Carrollton scuffed away chances to get back into the game.
The Rockets improve to 7-5 and 2-1 in the WIVC.
“We’ve had four different kids score 20 points this year. We can spread it around and what you’re hoping is you can get it to where they’re all playing well,” Whalen said. “This is a great town of basketball and a great tradition. Anytime you come into Carrollton and win no matter how strong or weak you are it’s a big victory.”
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