Carmel rolls by Senn

Asher Jackson came off the bench and added some energy for Carmel Catholic's boys basketball team Tuesday night.

The sophomore lifted the Corsairs with his shooting touch inside and beyond the arc in the second quarter for 11 points and was one of four players in double figures.

The rest of fourth-seeded Carmel responded as it outdistanced No. 13 Senn 67-39 in the Class 3A regional semifinal at Deerfield.

Carmel (19-13) will play the winner of Wednesday's semifinal between No. 12 Lakes and No. 5 Deerfield on Friday night for the regional title.

However the Corsairs' Kimahri Wilson, who had a team-high 15 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals, injured his left ankle in the third quarter and left the game. He returned a couple minutes later, made a layup and a 3-pointer and then sat out the fourth quarter.

"I think he had twisted an ankle," Carmel coach Zack Ryan said. "I really didn't see it or talk to him enough. He looked like he was in some pain. We'll get some ice on him and hopefully he will be ready for Friday. He wanted to get back in, he's smart, knows his body and basketball. So he wanted to go back in and taped it up. I looked at it and it was one of those things that looked OK. He played a little bit, then we took him out, because the game was in hand."

Carmel has been on a lay off for nine days and was trying to get back into a flow, which took until the second quarter.

"We wanted to make sure that we were ready to go," Ryan said. "There was a little concern for us having that many off days with no games. It was hard with a lot of practices in a row and we had to keep it creative. For the most part, I thought we played hard and we didn't show many signs of rust."

The Corsairs maintained a 13-8 lead after the opening quarter over Senn (16-6) and it was 19-14 in favor of the Corsairs a few minutes into the second quarter.

Then Jackson came in off the bench and scored 8 points that included a jump shot and a couple of 3-pointers of a 17-4 run that extended the Carmel lead to 36-18 at halftime.

"I just gave my teammates a spark off the bench," Jackson said. "It just gave the team energy and we do play off our bench a lot. When the bench gives energy, we do start playing well."

Carmel carried the momentum into the second half and never looked back after that.

Bryce Moore took a couple of charges on defense and Joey Halaburt dropped in three 3-pointers as each had 10 points.

Senn was led by David Edaghese with a game-high 23 points and 6 rebounds.