Carroll boys basketball has break before Whataburger tournament

The Carroll boys basketball team came up a bit short in its game with North Crowley last week, but coach Eric McDade said his team performed very well and that the results should be placed in their proper context.

Carroll is gearing up for a 10-day break before heading into the Whataburger Tournament, where McDade said he expects his team to continue to grow and improve.

“What we want to do is try to get our game legs back, get our timing and try to get ready for district play,” McDade said. “Those are our main objectives.”

Carroll lost 55-43 to North Crowley on Friday night, but McDade said the final result was closer than the score would indicate.

“I thought we played pretty well,” McDade said. “We started out going up 5-0, and then they scored 17 unanswered. Then in the second quarter, we cut it down to six or seven by half. Then we had a great third quarter. We had a great third quarter, and we actually had the score 32-31 with the chance to take the lead ... it was a back and forth battle, and we were in foul mode in the end, so the score is not indicative of how close the game was.”

North Crowley is the No. 2-ranked team in the state at the moment and has only lost 11 home games all time, with more than 170 victories.

“We really pushed them to the threshold and made great strides,” McDade said.

The Dragons will not have a game for the next 10 days in a row, but McDade said that does not mean his team will be off.

“The UIL requires us to have five days off,” McDade said on Sunday. “So we worked out and did our lifting and stuff on Saturday. We’ll come back and have a practice tomorrow, and then we’ll be off Tuesday through Sunday.”

Carroll will open up the Whataburger Tournament with last year’s tournament champs, Little Rock Parkview (Ark.), and McDade said he knows his team will have its hands full.

“They are the number one team in Arkansas, they won the state title last year and they have everybody back,” McDade said. “They also won the tournament last year. They have tremendous guard play, they press, they are just really a veteran team.

“Last year, those guys were learning the ropes, but they were really talented, so they will probably be one of the stronger teams we’ve played this season.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Carroll boys basketball has break before Whataburger tournament."