Samantha Carr was lighting it up last night for the Mohawk High girls basketball team.

Carr collected a game-high 27 points to power the Lady Warriors to a 56-50 WPIAL Section 2-AA road win over Laurel last night.

Fifteen of Carr’s markers came in the second half.

“Sam played very well,” Mohawk coach Mike O’Lare said of Carr. “She’s been sick the last couple of days, but she played very well and she was very efficient.

“I know she didn’t take a lot of shots to get to 27. Her scoring was spaced out and almost every time she scored, it was a big shot.”

It’s the third straight loss for the Lady Spartans (1-1 section, 3-3 overall). Laurel was 14 of 22 at the foul line.

“We’re leaving too many points on the board,” Laurel coach Jessica Shevitz said. “If you’re going to play close games, you have to finish.

“This one hurts.”

Rachael Baker and Kristin Dicks netted 11 points each for the Lady Spartans. Dicks also registered 10 rebounds, six steals and five assists.

“I thought Kristin played a great game,” Shevitz said. “She played particularly well with her defense and kept it close for us.; she works hard.”

Brooke Dicks and Ellen Shaffer tossed in 10 points apiece for the hosts. Shaffer supplied eight rebounds, while Jessica Conrad contributed 10 boards to go with her eight markers.

O’Lare acknowledged the quality effort by Holly Duncan defensively on Shaffer.

“I thought Holly Duncan did a great job defensively on Ellen Shaffer,” O’Lare said. “Her job was to defend and rebound; she’s our leader defensively.

“She did a great job on her. We couldn’t let her go off on us; she was a focus for us.”

Melissa Verlotte added 15 points for Mohawk (2-1, 5-1).

“I thought Melissa really grew up a lot (last night),” O’Lare said. “They were all over her physically. She responded and made big plays. I really do think she took a huge step forward with her growth.”

“Everything they were shooting was going in,” Shevitz said. “Mohawk plays a zone and makes you work for everything you get.”

The Lady Warriors outscored Laurel 18-9 in the second quarter to erase a one-point deficit and claim a 31-23 halftime advantage.

“We started to get caught up in a really uptempo game early on,” O’Lare said. “We were trying to control the pace of the game. We weren’t doing that in the first quarter.

“In the second quarter, we started making changes.”