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Show Wed/Thurs/Fri, February 26-28, 2020 The Park Record B-3 Miners come up short TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Park City head coach Thomas Purcell speaks with his team during a timeout in the first half of the Miners’ second-round playoff game against No. 10 Bountiful at Bountiful High School. After trailing by 10 at the end of the first quarter, Park City’s rally in the second half came up short in the 80-64 loss and ended the season. Park City bows out in the second round of 5A state playoffs RYAN KOSTECKA The Park Record The Park City boys basketball team knew it wasn’t going to be easy. As the No. 26 seed in the Class 5A state playoffs, the Miners already pulled off one upset in the opening round taking down No. 7 Lehi 48-45 last week. But to pull off another upset over No. 10 Bountiful on Friday night, it was going to take a totally different type of effort. Despite trailing by double digits at the end of the first quarter, Park City was able to cut the deficit to two points in the fourth quarter before its rally came up short in the end — falling 80-64 in its season-ending loss. “We knew that with our defense and our press we could create some mismatches with Lehi, and that’s what happened in the end,” said Thomas Purcell, Park City head coach. “But we knew Bountiful was a different type of monster with their two star players. ... We knew that we would have to play near perfect to get the win.” Sophomore Carson Tabaracci led the Miners with 15 points, knocking down a season-high 5-of-5 from three-point territory to keep Park City in the game. Senior Mark McCurdy finished his career with 14 points while sophomore Mitch Lind finished his postseason strong with 12 points. “The boys never gave up. … That’s one thing I can definitely say because they just kept fighting and working hard,” Purcell said. “Despite trailing early, they stayed with the game plan and kept sticking with the offense. We hit some really big shots and crawled back in the game. … TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Park City sophomore Carson Tabaracci pulls up to shoot a floater over the heads of Bountiful’s Ethan Phillips, left, and Robert Whalen during their second-round Class 5A state playoff game on Friday at Bountiful High School. Tabaracci finished with a team-high 15 points in the game, shooting a perfect 5-for-5 from three-point territory. Each one of the boys hit big shots that kept us in it.” One massive problem for Park City in the game was Bountiful junior Robert Whaley Jr., who has NBA lineage as his dad Robert Whaley played for the Utah Jazz and Toronto Raptors from 2005 to 2006. The 6-foot-5 junior was unstoppable down low, finishing with a season-high 38 points and 14 rebounds, shooting 16-of-21 from the floor including a couple of powerful dunks. Purcell thought he had a great game plan going into Friday’s game despite the one day to scout and prepare as to best limit Whaley’s presence down low, but it didn’t exactly go as planned. They wanted to push the tempo and force Whaley to run the court and hopefully tire him out, and when he got the ball down on the block, they wanted to force him into jump shots and double-team him if he put the ball on the floor. “We threw the entire kitchen sink at him. … We tried everything and we couldn’t stop him at all,” Purcell said. “You have to give him a lot of credit because he was a totally different player against us than any of the other games we watched on film. … I don’t know if he turned it on for the playoffs or what. He was knocking down his shots and running the floor, just doing all the stuff against us that he didn’t show in other games.” Despite Whaley’s dominance, the Miners mounted their double-digit comeback on the aide of a full-court press defense and their Princeton offense. The Princeton offense, which is about constant movement, back-door cuts, screens on and off the ball and discipline, was introduced to the Miners when Purcell came on this season and Park City finally ran it to perfection. “We made a living off the Princeton stuff, it’s how we were able to take advantage of him (Whaley) on defense and get back into the game,” Purcell said. “We knew he wasn’t great at guarding off the ball so that part of the scout actually worked. … The back cuts left us wide open in the paint for the easy layups that kept us in it.” After Park City cut the deficit to 54-52 early in the fourth, the next four possessions decided the game as Bountiful went on an 11-2 run that Park City was Please see Miners, B-4 TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Park City senior Mark McCurdy drives to the hoop for layup while being guarded by Bountiful’s Camron Chism during their second-round playoff game on Friday. While Park City fell 80-64 in the end, McCurdy put up 14 points and six assists in his final game as a Miner. Studies show that when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned business, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community. |