The Reed girls basketball team will play in a regional semifinal for the seventh straight season. A red-hot shooting night assured the Raiders of that.

Reed shooters dropped eleven 3-points bombs and cruised to a 74-39 romp over Carson in a Northern 4A first-round playoff game Wednesday night.

The 74 points was a season-high for the RHS squad, which improved to 19-7 with the home postseason triumph.

“I honestly think that was the best basketball game we've played all year,” fifth-year Reed coach Sara Schopper said. “We didn't have any defensive letdowns. We didn't have any offensive droughts. I told the girls, ‘that's what I've been waiting for all season.’”

Reed's junior reserve guard, Joanna Phillips, connected on 7 of 10 shots from three-point land and finished with a game-high 21 points. Six of her treys came in the first half. Sophomore Sierra Hooft knocked down a trio of treys and added 13 points to help Reed's perimeter prowess Wednesday.

In all, Reed finished 28-of-51 (55 percent) shooting on the night.

“I've been waiting all year for Joanna to do that,” Schopper said. “She had the hot hand tonight. She wasn't thinking about shooting. She just let it come to her.

“That was huge (shooting that well as a team). I've been waiting for that the last three or four games we've seen zone. Tonight, we hit those shots and then you have to defend against it. That opens up the floor for (all-league post) Danielle (Peacon).”

Phillips' big night caught the Carson coaching staff off-guard.

“I didn't think anybody (they had) could shoot it that well. We spent a lot of time on Danielle because everything goes through her,” third-year Carson coach Todd Ackerman said. “There was confusion as to who was supposed to go out on her. It's a credit to her. She made the shots.”

The Raiders got a layup from Peacon just seconds after the opening tip and got 3-pointers from Hooft and Nese Jackson to grab a quick 8-0 lead just two minutes into the playoff affair.

However, Carson (17-11) didn't go away early. A Gina Bianchi layup helped the visiting Senators stop the bleeding and trim Reed's lead to 13-10 with 2:55 to go in the first period. Reed reeled off the next seven points and wound up taking a 20-14 lead at the first period's conclusion.

The margin was five, 22-17, after the postseason foes traded buckets to open the second period. That's when Reed started to get some separation. An 11-0 Raiders outburst, in a three-minute stretch, was keyed by two Phillips 3-pointers and forged Reed ahead 33-16 with 3:19 remaining before halftime.

The 17-point deficit remained intact into the break as Reed took a 39-22 advantage into the locker room at the intermission.

Twice Carson cut the lead to 15 in the third period. The second occasion came after a 3-point play by Bianchi at the 3:30 mark of the quarter.

Bianchi led Carson with 14 points. She was the lone CHS player to hit for double digits in the scoring column.

Any faint hopes the Senators had of keeping it close went out the window from there. A 21-2 Reed explosion bridged the third and fourth quarters. Hooft wrapped up the run with a layup that left 4:19 on the game clock. The Raiders had pushed their lead to 67-33 at that point.

“I thought our defense was the key,” Schopper said. “Nese Jackson set the tempo for us on defense, running down people from behind and getting tips. We got to loose balls. It all started clicking.

“When we got tired, I put subs in. They knew what we were doing and they came in with the same intensity. So I was able to keep fresh legs on the floor. The girls were reading and shifting defensively. We've been teaching all year and it feels like it all came together tonight. Now that we know what it feels like, hopefully we can do it again Friday.”

The final 35-point margin was the largest of the game.

While Phillips and Hooft keyed Reed's long-range offense, the Raiders all-state senior post, Peacon, torched the Senators inside, contributing 18 points to the winning cause.

“I thought we did a good job preparing for their size,” Ackerman said. “I look at our size and I look at their size and we were outmanned from the start. We're so young in the post, experience wise, that she (Peacon) beat up on our young ones.”

The loss ends the season for Carson, the Sierra League's No. 3 seed. With the win, Reed, the High Desert League runner-up, earns a berth in Friday night's Northern 4A semifinals. The Raiders will play Sierra League regular season champion Galena at 7 p.m. at Spanish Springs High School.