CARSON CITY - A heart-breaking non-league loss at Carson saddled the Spanish Springs girls basketball team with a three-game losing streak. It's the first time the Cougars have dropped three games in a row in nearly two years.

The SSHS squad put itself in a big hole and could not dig its way out en route to a 52-50 non-league loss at Carson Saturday afternoon.

Spanish Springs fell behind by 18 points, 28-10 less than a minute into the third period before watching a furious comeback attempt fall short.

"It starts and ends with us. We played with no intensity and no sense of urgency in the first half," Spanish Springs coach Christine Eckles said. "You can't score 10 points in a half and fall behind by 18 points and expect to win."

A lethargic first-half effort saw Spanish Springs commit 20 turnovers and convert only 4 of 15 field-goal attempts in the first 16 minutes. It left the SSHS team staring at a 24-10 halftime deficit.

Carson got buckets from Gina Bianchi and Krista Mattice in the first minute of the third period to build the 28-10 advantage. That's when Spanish Springs hit rock bottom and began to bounce back.

The Cougars responded with a 22-9 run and got back to within five, 37-32, before Carson point guard Brandi Vega dropped a 3-point bomb as time expired on the third period.

"I don't know if we didn't take them seriously or if we already got started on Christmas break, but we didn't get it done," Eckles said. "We didn't play hard in the first half and we didn't play smart basketball. We made way too many plays that just were not smart."

Vega's trey gave the host Senators a 40-32 lead heading to the final period, but the Cougars did not roll over and play dead. Spanish Springs outscored Carson 15-8 over the first six minutes of the fourth quarter. An Ari James basket got the Cougars within one, 48-47, with just under two minutes left.

On the ensuing possession, Cougars point guard Tiffany Lang, who sat out most of the first half after injuring an ankle, fouled Vega near the sideline. The foul proved costly. Lang had scored nine points in the second half to help the SSHS crew get back in contention, but she fouled out on that sequence. In addition, Vega proceeded to knock down both foul shots and push the Senators lead back to three, 50-47.

Vega hurt Spanish Springs throughout the non-league affair, pouring in 20 points. Bianchi added 14 for Carson.

Over the next minute and a half, Carson converted 2 of 4 free throws and Spanish Springs hit 3 of 4 attempts, leaving Carson with the final two-point lead, 52-50. The Cougars still had eight seconds left on the clock, but a James shot in the lane bounced off the rim and went out of bounds.

With 0.2 seconds left, the Cougars retained possession, but a tip-attempt by James, off an in-bounds play, fell short, securing the win for Carson and nixing the Cougars' rally.

"The comeback was a positive. It's better than the alternative, but you can't fall behind by 18 points. It takes so much energy to even get yourself back in the game that not many teams can get all the way back and win," Eckles said.

James led Spanish Springs in scoring with 13 points, while Lang finished with 11. Cougars' leading scorer, Courtney Darby was held to nine points. Darby is averaging 13.6 points per game, but has now been held in single digits in back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Spanish Springs also hurt its cause by not going to the glass. The Cougars had only been out-rebounded twice in their first 10 games, but they were beaten up on the boards Saturday. Carson dominated the rebounding battle, winning it 36-23 while holding the visitors to a season-low four offensive rebounds.

Spanish Springs gets a week off from game action. The Cougars will not play again until next Saturday, when they play two pool games in the annual Centennial High tournament in Las Vegas.

BOYS

At the Rosemont Round-up in Sacramento, the Spanish Springs boys hoop team was knocked off by northern Nevada rival McQueen, 68-54 in the tournament's third-place game.

Spanish Springs, which started the season 7-0, is now 8-3 after dropping back-to-back games in the California tourney.

The Cougars fell behind by 11, 21-10, after the first period and trailed the rest of the way. The SSHS crew fell behind by as many as 22 points. The Cougars closed to within nine points in the final two minutes, but that's as good as it got for the local squad.

"They just beat us. They're a whole lot better than we are," Spanish Springs coach Kyle Penney said. "They made shots. They beat us back door. They beat us off the dribble. I think we were 18-of-58 from the field and that obviously doesn't help.

"You could tell they just wanted it. It was statement time for them. They wanted to show they're going to be contenders, and if you look at this score, they are."

Adam Miller and Dan Lide scored 16 and 15 points for the Cougars in the losing effort. Spanish Springs' leading scorer, senior guard Taelor Marchbanks, was held scoreless.

"I don't know what makes us tick," Penney said, alluding to his frustrations over the weekend. "We need a psychiatrist or I need to be one, but I don't know what buttons to push or what motivates these guys. This weekend anyway, there aren't any. When things went bad, they went really bad. When it rains it pours."

The Cougars hit the hardwood again Friday in San Diego in the MaxPreps-Torrey Pines Classic.