Carroll boys rally late to top South
It was easy to see that Bishop Carroll and South were playing their season-opener Friday night.
Few shots fell in the first half, but Carroll was able to get its game clicking in the second half, thanks to seniors Jordan Bieberle and Thomas Sauber, who combined for 28 points and led the Golden Eagles to a 43-34 win at South.
“Typical first game,” Carroll coach Lonnie Lollar said. “Everybody thinks they’re ready to play at that fast pace, and they’re not. At least we weren’t.
“You’ve got to find out where you are sometime, and we found out a lot about ourselves. We know we’re not there by any means — we knew that coming into tonight’s game — but it did show us some things where we can go back.”
Both teams came out sloppy, and South jumped to a 16-10 halftime lead behind five points from senior Alex Kieswetter and four from sophomore Jordan Moore.
“As ugly as it was for us in the first half, in the second half we had a little more confidence,” Lollar said. “We just played like a team that hasn’t had a lot of guys in that big-game experience, and that’s what it looked like by both teams.”
Bieberle hit three of his four three-pointers in the second half, but Carroll still trailed, 22-19, going into the fourth quarter.
Sauber then stepped forward, scoring all of his 10 points in the final period, including six big free throws down the stretch. Bieberle scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter.
“I think we just came off a little slow,” Bieberle said. “We were just overconfident and came out too energized than we needed to be, but in the second half we kind of got in our groove, the way we know we can play and just took it to them.”
Lollar said it’s good to have the opener finished.
“It’s like jumping in the water; you don’t know what it’s like until you jump in,” he said. “Well, now we know.”
South was plagued by misses close to the back — with many hitting the back of the rim. The Titans also struggled at the free-throw line, hitting just six of 16 attempts. Carroll hit 9 of 11 free throws.
Kieswetter led South with nine points and Diallo Wesley had eight.
South coach Demarcco Owens said free throws will be a hot topic in today’s practice.
“We’re trying to take it minute by minute, quarter by quarter, and we’re just getting used to that,” he said. “Free throws and just trying to put the ball in the ocean.
“We’re going to learn from our mistakes and turn the negatives into positives.”
Carroll (1-0, 1-0) 7 3 9 24 — 43 South (0-1, 0-1) 8 8 6 12 —34
BISHOP CARROLL: Newell 0 0-0 0, Price 0 0-0 0, Tan. Palmore 3 2-2 8, Bullinger 0 0-0 0, Reazin 2 0-0 4, Tyl. Palmore 0 1-2 1, J. Bieberle 7 (4) 0-0 18, Terhune 0 0-0 0, Sauber 2 6-6 10, Loy 1 0-1 2. Totals 15 (4) 9-11 43.
SOUTH: Lovell 0 0-0 0, Wesley 3 (1) 1-2 8, Martin 2 (1) 0-1 6, Davis 2 1-6 5, Gilkey 1 0-0 2, A. Kieswetter 4 1-2 9, Logan 0 0-0 0, Moore 1 2-4 4. Totals 13 (2) 6-16 34.