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Show Miners lose close one . " I. 1 ; - - -tmim. -. :A " . fc A t ... w: - - I W ""g , m ! ' ' ' w '? s I 1 ; f BY David E. Neu The Park High Miners bowed to the pressure of a fourth quarter quar-ter rally by the North Rich Mustangs Mus-tangs and suffered a 75-63 loss Monday night in their first game of the Region 9 Round Robin Basketball Tournament at Kamas. The loss set them up for a game Tuesday against the loser of the Tintic vs. Manila game, and a win there would put the Miners against either St. Joseph or Wendover Thursday afternoon at 2:00 to determine the 6th place team in the tourney, which will go to the state championship champion-ship along with the top five finishers. "If we had handled the ball and rebounded well in the fourth quarter, we would have won it, said Coach Ron Stepan. "We made 15 points, but they made 29," lamented Stepan. "They just didn't miss." It appeared to be the Miners' game until just prior to the tumultuous fourth quarter. They jumped to an early lead on some aggressive playmaking and a tight defense which held the Mustangs at bay. The Miners Min-ers were slowed down by North Rich's full court press just prior to the second quarter, but the Miners were still able to work the ball slowly into their big men, center Ron Schaefer, and forwards Mike Alvey and Kelly Mackley, who hit on short jumpers to stretch the lead to 23-14 midway through the second The Park High Miners Var- Lambert, Brad Dearden, Howard Davidson, Tim sity Basketball squad. Left to Scott Toly, Ron Shaeffer, King, Frank Marcellin, Brad right: Brent Blackham, John Mike Alvey, Kelly Mackley, Goff, and coach Ron Stepan. quarter. North Rich fought back with its own deadly shooting primarily pri-marily from forward Ted Weston, Wes-ton, and guard Simeion Weston, and the Miners' lead was narrowed nar-rowed to 31-27 at the half. Guard F rank Marcellin of the Miners sank two driving layups with less than a minute gone in the second half, and the Miners' front court continued hitting well, particularly Mackley, who was as accurate pulling down rebounds re-bounds as he was hittingthe hoop. With slightly over three minutes min-utes left in the third quarter, both teams scrambled hungrily for the ball which stayed aloof of all pursuers for about 15 seconds sec-onds before landing safely in the hands of Schaefer, who stuck it away to put the Miners ahead by 7, 41-34. The Mustangs' Ted Weston came right back with two buckets to hack the lead to three points, and the third quarter ended with the Miners ahead only 48-46. North Rich tied it up less than 15 seconds into the fourth quarter and a battle for the lead was waged the next four minutes before be-fore the Mustangs wore the Miners Min-ers down with their finely tuned fast break and hustle under the boards. The Miners seeingtheir lead challenged for the first time, were forced into costly mistakes of ball handling and bad shooting situations. The Mustangs performed superbly hitting from all angles on the court and converting nearly all their free throws. With a seven point lead and slightly over a minute remaining remain-ing in the game, North Rich went into a ball control situation. Mackley fouled out in a desperate des-perate attempt at the ball, and the game which had once been the Miners' was now in the bag for the Mustangs, as they went on the 75-63 victory. Schaefer's 23 points led the Miners' cause with Mackley playing one of his better games ,and netting 13, followed by Alvey with 12, Marcellin with 11, and Toly with 4. Simeon Weston of North Rich led all scorers with 27 points and Ted Weston scored 25, with Rusty Price getting 15, Dan Weston Wes-ton 4, and Glen Hanson and Max Weston adding 2 a piece. Park High's game last Thursday Thurs-day with the St. Joseph Jays resulted in a 58-45 victory for the Miners to break the tie for fourth place finish in their division di-vision in regular league play. |