Spruce Mountain’s Calley Baker passes the ball as Mountain Valley’s Courtney Carrier (31), Avery Sevigny (23) and Kierstyn Lyons (14) surrounds Baker in an MVC basketball game at The Nest in Jay on Saturday night. (Sun Journal picture by Tony Blasi)

JAY — There was no secret of how Mountain Valley senior center Courtney Carrier accumulated her game-high 22 points in a Mountain Valley Conference girls’ basketball game Saturday night at The Nest.

Carrier was open much of the time and the Falcons just kept feeding her the ball, which resulted in Mountain Valley’s 57-35 victory over Spruce Mountain (9-6) on the Phoenix’s senior night.

“I didn’t think they expected that,” Carrier, who was everywhere the Phoenix didn’t expect her to be, said. “My teammates are pretty good about passing the ball where they needed to be. We definitely expected it to be intense, especially since it was their senior night and they had a lot more fans than we did. So we knew we had to keep our game up and play through the whole game.

“Definitely one of my best games. I can’t take all the credit, especially with my teammates, who know where to put the ball and they help out really good with rebounds. We needed this win and we need to keep doing this.”

Carrier was strong inside the paint and went 2-for02 from the free-throw line.

“Courtney Carrier was just waiting for a night like that,” Mountain Valley coach Craig Milledge said. “She leads us in rebounds. She does all kinds of things. … What I do know is she shoots at a high percentage and she makes shots and she gets the ball where she can score.

“And tonight, I thought our guards did an extremely good job of getting her the ball where she could be effective and she put the ball in the hole.”

The Falcons soared in the first quarter going on a 15-2 run as Spruce Mountain’s shots missed the mark.

The Phoenix climbed back into it before halftime and scored 11 points while holding the Falcons to seven. But Mountain Valley was still in command with a 22-13 cushion going into the third quarter.

“I thought we let them hang around for a little while,” Milledge said. “I do think that for my high school girls to be able to withstand and win a game against a good team in an environment like this is a really big deal.

“It was loud. It was intense and we played against a really good team and a really well-coached team. They play defense as good as anybody we face. They are very disciplined. For our girls to win, again in that environment, under those conditions is a pretty big deal.”

Mountain Valley was fired up again in the third quarter and put together 19 points and took a 41-22 lead. Falcons sophomore guard Rylee Sevigny slipped in 11 points and went an impressive 7-for-9 at the free-throw line.

Spruce Mountain junior guard Jaycee Cole shined with 16 points and went 9-for-11 at charity stripe. Senior Haley Turcotte scored eight points.

“From the get-go, we got our butts kicked,” Spruce Mountain coach Zachary Keene said. “It is what is. From time to time, we were good defensively. I don’t think we rebounded well and didn’t play well offensively.

“And they have a lot of good players that made us pay for it. Back to the drawing board, I guess.”

Spruce Mountain’s Haley goes up for a shot as Mountain Valley’s Kierstyn Lyons (14) and Rylee Sevigny (3) try to intervene in an MVC basketball game at The Nest in Jay on Saturday night. (Sun Journal picture by Tony Blasi)

Spruce Mountain’s Jaycee Cole (4) tries to get around Mountain Valley’s Leigha Carrier (25) in an MVC basketball game at The Nest in Jay on Saturday night. (Sun Journal picture by Tony Blasi)Mountain Valley senior center Courtney Carrier, far right, stands ready at the key in MVC game at Phoenix Dome on Saturday night. (Sun Journal photo by Tony Blasi)