BOULDER — Most basketball coaches have a love-hate relationship with their point guards.

Screaming at them one minute — because they expect nothing but the best out of them — and then praising them the next.

That was never more evident than on Tuesday night in The Dungeon at Fairview. Monarch coach Bill Bradley's junior floor-general Peyton Carter had just turned the ball over driving to the basket in a tight must-win game for the Coyotes against the Knights.

"I told her I don't mind the 3, but attack the lane and trying to split two people and traveling ... just run an offense until you find a 3," Bradley said.

And she did, the next time down. It was one of five 3-pointers on the night for Carter, who finished with a career-high 28 points, in a huge 59-52 road win.

"She played big time," Bradley continued.

Said Carter, whose face lit up when she realized the totality of her offensive outburst — including a flawless 9-for-9 from the line in the fourth quarter: "Last game out (against Horizon) when the game was on the line, I missed four free throws and I was short every single time. I really focused on free-throws over the weekend and then again before the game and I knew it was going to come down to free-throws in this game."

And it did.

The second half turned in to a wonderful back-and-forth duel between Carter and Fairview's Ashley Panem.

The Fairview sophomore single-handedly kept her team in the game in the second half, slashing when she had openings and knocking down 3's en route to 21 of her 25 points.

But in a case of "anything you can do, I can do better" between the guards, it was Carter that ultimately had the last laugh.

"We couldn't stop Carter," said Fairview coach Rod Beauchamp, who watched Carter draw her fourth foul late in the third period. "She did a great job. We were in the bonus in the third quarter and then unfortunately we went a little more passive and started shooting 3's instead of attacking and trying to get to the free throw line."

Both Carter and Jazz Jeffcoat played a majority of the fourth quarter with four fouls and both did a good job of playing smart down the stretch. In addition to Carter's 28, Olivia Burgener finished with 10 and Jeffcoat had nine in a huge win for Monarch.

"We've been close a lot and we've played a lot of 50-50 ball games and we have been waiting for our kids to make some plays and I feel like tonight, we made some plays," Bradley said. "We've just needed something to fall in to place and we have had a lot of people tell us, we are the team that no one wants to play come state tournament time."

In addition to Panem's big night for the Knights, Denali Pinto finished with 10 points. Fairview will try to rebound against Legacy on Friday night.

Jon Yunt: yuntj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/JonEYunt

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