'Special talent': Carson Fuegen excelling for EV basketball

Mar. 6—MILES — Sophomore Carson Fuegen doesn't let sibling rivalry cloud his objectivity.

When asked if he or his brother has more one-on-one basketball victories over the other, Carson gave it up to his brother, Porter.

"He's probably got me beat," Carson said, "but not by much."

Porter said his brother is dead on.

"One-hundred percent," Porter said.

But not by much though, right?

"Debatable," Porter Fuegen said, laughing.

Carson Fuegen, the team's starting point guard, has been the orchestrator of an Easton Valley offense that has dominated its opponents this season, helping the River Hawks to a 22-0 record and a state tournament appearance.

Carson averages 6.6 assists per game and it's his job to get the ball to guys like Kaleb Cornilsen, Cayden Deardorff or his brother, Porter.

His teammates and coaches have been singing his praises leading up to next week, but Carson is not only honest about his career record against his brother, but also his performance as one of the younger starters on the team.

"Personally, I think I have a couple too many turnovers, but that's going to come with as much as I pass the ball," Carson said. "Coming in, I knew we had Kaleb, my brother, Deardorff down low, just a lot of dominant scorers. I knew I needed to come in and get them the ball in the best possible position for them to score.

"It's definitely nice to have that many options. Let's say Kaleb's going off, it opens up opportunities for other people since we have so many good scorers. We try to keep everyone involved so people don't go games without getting any shots up."

Easton Valley coach Dan Beck knew his point guard was going to be special after seeing him play over the summer.

"I started to notice his feel for the game right away in the summer," Beck said. "I tell everybody, he doesn't just have vision seeing the court from side-to-side and knowing what's in front — there's times in practice where he would make passes to guys coming down the floor behind him. As coaches, we'd be sitting there saying, 'How did he know? How did he see that?'

"He's a special, special talent. That's for sure."

Porter Fuegen said playing with his brother has been a privilege.

"It's been awesome," he said. "He makes it super easy for all of us. You just get in a spot where you can score and he's going to find you no matter what. He makes it super easy for the rest of us to score."

Carson said all those times playing one-on-one in the driveway helped he and his brother's chemistry quite a bit.

"We've always played with each other growing up," Fuegen said. "Playing next to each other, we're very comfortable, we can read each other's minds pretty easily, when to cut, so it's definitely an advantage."

Porter said their relationship on the court is telepathic.

"I can definitely tell from playing when we were younger all the time in the driveway — we're just a step ahead of the defense sometimes getting in a position where I know he's going to get to a spot where he can get it to me," he said. "That just makes it super easy and super fun when we're flowing that well together."

Carson said the team wants to prove itself against Martensdale on Monday.

"It's definitely going to be really exciting," Fuegen said. "It's our first time out there. We're the underdogs, the lower seed, so we're just coming out here trying to prove our name and hopefully take the 'W.'"

In addition to hitting his teammates with perfect passes, Carson said he's going to do everything he can to help EV get that 'W.'

"I'm going to play the best defense I can, limit my turnovers and hopefully hit a couple shots if I can," he said.