By David Vantress

For a good chunk of last Friday night’s Summit Athletic Conference matchup between Carroll and South Side, it was a typical Friday night SAC slugfest.

All night long, the Chargers tried to put away a pesky Archer squad, and Carroll was finally able to do that late in the fourth quarter, pulling away for a 71-50 win.

On Saturday, the Chargers fell to Penn, 88-64, in a nonconference contest.

With the weekend split Carroll improved to 8-5 overall on the 2022-23 season (3-2 SAC).

Friday night against South Side, the Chargers started off a bit sluggishly, knotted with the Archers at 9 at the first stop.

The Chargers scratched out to a 15-10 lead early in the second stanza, but South Side (2-11, 0-5) responded with a 7-2 run to take a 17-15 lead with less than three minutes left in the first half.

Carroll closed the half on an 8-1 spurt to take a 25-18 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, the Chargers began to take control of the contest, outscoring the Archers 20-12 to lead 45-30 at the final stop.

The Archers still hung tough early in the final quarter, cutting the Charger lead to eight at several points. But Carroll was able to hold off the Archers down the stretch.

Carroll was led by Cannen Houser with 17 points. Jaxon Pardon and Drelyn Truesdale added 15 each.

Carroll coach Ryan Abbott said the Archers, despite their record, are a dangerous team. “Give credit to them,” Abbott said. “They do a great job, they’re athletic.”

The key to victory for the Chargers, Abbott said, was balanced scoring, with the aforementioned three guys in double figures and Jaiyre Sampson just missing out on the party with eight.

The Chargers made just three 3’s on the night, doing most of their damage from inside the arc.

Abbott said his team played a bit tight in the first half, and when it loosened up in the second half things started to click in the offensive end.

The Chargers will travel to Snider this Friday night for the second game of a SAC girls-boys doubleheader.