Carthage —With three starters coming off the heels of helping Carthage High School win its first ever state football championship, it was inevitable that there would be some rust on the wheels of the Tiger basketball team.  Sporting a new coach, Nathan Morris, the Carthage Tigers worked through it and are off to a 1-0 start with a 65-61 win over the Belton Pirates in the first round of the 73rd Annual Carthage Invitational.
 
The game featured good athletes on display from both schools which led to a quick up and down pace to begin the game.  Both teams were not shy to shoot it from deep.  Senior Marcus Huntley started off hot with two 3's, senior Taris Jackson had one, and the 6'8" senior Alex Martini had a nice step back 3-pointer to highlight Carthage scoring in the first quarter.   Belton played toe to toe with CHS while making many 3's as well.  After one quarter of action, the score was knotted up 17-17.
 
In the second quarter, the pace slowed a bit as Carthage took advantage of several reckless drives from Belton players which resulted in offensive fouls to give the ball back to the Tigers.  The highlight of the game came on a fast break for the Tigers where a kick ahead to Martini followed by a touch pass to Jackson led to a nice one-hand dunk for the senior point guard.  Going into the half, Carthage held a 29-26 advantage.
 
To start the second half, Carthage began to assert its dominance inside with rim finishes from Martini, fast break finishes from junior Morgan Frisinger and Jackson.  Two "And-1" three-point plays from junior Patrick Carlton, who is as comfortable on the court as he is on the football field as a heralded dual-threat quarterback, helped push the lead to 46-37.  Both buckets were from assists from Martini and senior classmate Oscar Campa.   Carthage would go into the fourth quarter up 46-39.
 
The fourth quarter was more exciting than the home crowd was hoping for as Belton managed to cut the lead all the way down to 1 at 62-61 with 13.0 seconds to go.  Carthage missed some free-throws that would have stretched their lead to a more comfortable margin to help Belton stay in it all the way until the end.  Two free-throws by Martini sealed the deal for Carthage to move on to the semifinals Friday night.  The Carthage Tigers will face the Nevada Tigers in a 7:00 PM tipoff for a chance to reach the Championship game on Saturday. 

Carthage Tigers 65, Belton Pirates 61
Belton         17      9    13    22 - 61
Carthage    17    12    17    19 - 65
Scoring
CARTHAGE:  HUNTLEY 18, MARTINI 17, CARLTON 12, JACKSON 10, MO. FRISINGER 6, GACKE 2
BELTON:  J. CLARK 21, CRADDOCK III 19, S. FULLER 7, FLOYD 6, RUSSELL 5, JOHNSON 3