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Show SPORT FLASHBACKS Uintah loses heartbreaker to Delta Rabbits A basketball story follows as it was printed in the Vernal Express on Jan. 5, 1961. UINTAH UTES SHOW PLENTY OF FIGHT BUT LOSE TWICE If fight and desire alone could win basketball games, Uintah's Utes would have had two victories to chalk up instead in-stead of two defeats. However, the Utes did drop both games of a Thursday-Friday Thursday-Friday doubleheader. On Thursday night the Utes faced Judge Memorial's Bulldogs, whom they had played in the state tournament last year and though the Utes led throughout much of the game, the Bulldogs finally won the game by a 52-44 score. The Utes started the scoring on Tas-sainer's Tas-sainer's foul pitch and managed to hold onto a slim lead throughout the entire first quarter and the score stood 13-11 for Uintah at the end of the period. At the four minute mark of the second quarter the Bulldogs caught the Utes and pulled away to a four point lead, the largest lead either team had enjoyed up to that point. Fighting back gamely, although without the services of regular center Gayle McKeachnie, who was recovering from the effects of the flu, the Utes closed the gap to 21-20 at the intermission. The third quarter was then played on even terms as the teams traded points and baskets and the Utes finally tied up at 31-31 with 2:09 left in the period and went ahead by 37-34 at the end of the period. The Bulldogs, who were also without the services of their ace, Jim Yerkovitch, for much of the game, came storming back to tie it up at 40-40 and then went ahead to stay as the Utes tried desperately desperate-ly to catch them. The Pirates from Cyprus were the Ute foes on Friday night and they turned out to be just a little more than the Uintah boys could handle as they put on an amazing display of shooting. The Utes managed to stay pretty close throughout the first half, although the Pirates led all of the time, and the score at the first half ended was 26-20 for Cyprus. After the intermission the Pirates came back hotter than the proverbial firecracker to run to a 42-33 third quarter lead. The Utes just could not match the Pirates' shooting. As the fourth quarter started the Utes tried gallantly to overcome the deficit, but the hot shooting Pirates continued to blaze away and put the game out of reach of the Utes. The final score was 61-48 for Cyprus, but the Utes made a fine showing show-ing against the best team they have played this year. A basketball story follows as it was printed in the Vernal Express on Feb. 2, 1961. The Uintah Utes continued their unbeaten ways Friday night as they rolled roll-ed to an easy 59-34 win over Tabiona High School. The Utes were never threatened leading 19-7 at the end of the first quarter and were able to give all of the boys some valuable experience. 'J'abiona's Craner was the only man who could break through the Ute defense cf lecti vely and he racked up 19 points for the night to lead all scorers. Gayle McKeachnie scored 10 points for Uintah to be the only Ute in double figures, however, all but one of the 12 men used by Coach Bart Johnson ifian;iged to score to account for the high point total reached by the Utes. A basketball story follows as it was printed in the Vernal Express on Feb. 23, 1961. UINTAH CONTINUES DRIVE FOR CROWN BY DEFEATING EAGLES AT DUCHESNE The Uintah Utes continued their drive toward the Uintah Division basketball crown by beating Duchesne in rather " surprising fashion Friday night, 59-31. A previous engagement here in Vernal , had been a close contest before the Utes finally won it, and it was expected that, the Eagles would cook up some real trouble trou-ble for the Utes at Duchesne. Be that as it may, the Utes had little trouble in disposing of the Eagles in Friday's Fri-day's game, leading all the way and never actually being threatened. The game started slowly with both teams showing rather eratic passing, but the Utes started to click at the four minute mark and held a 16-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter. ( A very effective zone defense employed by the Utes kept the Eagles well off balance throughout the first half, forcing them to hurry what shots they could get off and resulting in a 29-12 halftime score. The Eagles did score four straight points as the second half started to bring the score up to 29-16, but this only seemed seem-ed to prod the Utes, who poured in the points again at will to lead 43-23 as the third period ended. The final score was Uintah, 59 and Duchesne, 34. A basketball story follows as it was printed in the Vernal Express on March 23, 1961. The Uintah Utes were dropped from the Utah Class "B" Basketball tourney Friday night in a heartbreaker with the Delta High School Rabbits, losing by 51-49. The Redskins who were in the consolation con-solation bracket by virtue of a 46-41 loss to Enterprise Wolves bounced back with a resounding victory over the Judge Memorial Bulldogs on Thursday, thus earning the right to meet .Delta. In the Delta game the Utes were slow to start and the early part of the first half saw the lead change back and forth several times. In the second quarter the local boys found the range and with Gayle McKeachnie, Jim Chivers and Arvel Tassainer hitting consistently they went out ahead by eight points at halftime. The Rabbits came out after the half with a full court press which seemed to hurt the Utes as they were forced to make passing and dribbling mistakes. Their accuracy at the hoop however offset off-set this deficiency and Uintah was still ahead 37-28 at the three quarter mark. The final quarter proved to be the Utes' downfall as they scored only 12 points while Delta was amassing 23. The game was tied at 49 all with not more than a half minute remaining. The Utes lost the ball on a bad pass and Paul Pace of Delta was fed a cripple under the basket which he banked in with authority authori-ty giving the Rabbits a 51-49 lead and subsequent victory as the Utes had only seven seconds to get the ball in bounds and try a long desperation throw at the basket. The Utes scored well in the tourney as Chivers ended his games as one of the tourney's high scorers and with McKeachnie and Tassainer not far behind. In the Judge contest Chivers scored 22, Tassainer 17, McKeachnie 11 and Oaks 9. High scorers in the Delta game were McKeachnie 12, Tassainer and Chivers each with 11 and Jolley with 9. Kirk Jolley did an excellent job on the boards during the tourney. However, the injury suffered by Jim Vernon in an earlier game forcing him to sit most of the tourney on the bench was probably a fac-. fac-. tor in the Ute defeat in that Oaks had to be shifted from forward to guard and McKeachnie from forward to the post thus playing positions with which they were not familiar. |