OCR Text |
Show Left to right : Miners Brett Peretti, Jeff Keye, Clint Weaver and Greg King started last Friday's Fri-day's game with Todd Mullen (not pictured). 'There's no question the defense won the game for us. . .when it really counted, when the chips were down, bur kids did some crucial things correctly' V'y. Coach Paul Willard Banmborimeirs: Miner varsity defense basketball squad plays to win on home court w aft V nl ," I. ( : ' , ) I j til - . 'V' I ; ii - . Miner head coach Paul Willard gives instructions to the team during an early first-quarter first-quarter timeout at Friday's game against Union. The Miners won 49-45 over a physical Union squad. photos by Neal Palumbo by JIM SMEDLEY itecord staff writer An intense defensive effort by Park City led the Miners to split a pair of 2 -A basketball games last weekend. They relied on steals and the foul shooting of Greg King and Scott Tatum to break open a close game at home en route to a 49-45 victory over Union Jan. 10. . And on Jan. 11, a dogged defensive .-.how in the waning minutes fell "one break short" as the Miners dropped - a road contest 41-36. The game against the Union Cougars was physical from baseline to baseline, as denoted by the number of fouls. The Miners were called for 19 fouls, while the Cougars committed 23 infractions. Park City hit 17 of 30 foul shots for 57 percent, while Union made 1 1 of 17 for 65 percent. per-cent. The split put the Miners' record to 4-5 overall and 2-5 in league play. Union's record, after the loss and a win over Wasatch Saturday, went to 4 fi overall and 2-6 in the league. Morgan, including a 2-point win over North Summit Friday, improved its record to 7-3 overall and 5-2 in the league. Park City clawed its way to a ti point lead, its biggest of the evening, even-ing, with 1:58 left in the third quarter. However, the Cougars scored the last 5 points of the quarter and enreJ lre final period down by I, w? ,.v -i ... r. ' a '. The teams traded buckets for most of the quarter before the Miners managed to pull ahead 43-39 with just under two minutes left. Union moved closer by sinking two free throws, but then the bottom fell ut for the Cougars. Tatum started the Miner rally by dealing an inbounds pass with one minute left in the game and he was fouled in the act of shooting. The senior calmly sank both shots. He picked off the next inbound pass and was fouled again. This time he only i onnected on one of the shots . The rebound from his second shot was tipped by a Cougar and King came up with it. King also was fouled foul-ed and connected on both shots to stake the Miners to a 48-41 lead with J9 seconds on the clock. Park City's pressure defense harassed the Cougars into yet another turnover as King picked off a pass. With 24 seconds left, he hit the front end of a one-and-one giving the Miners 49 points. I'nion finally got the! ball out of bounds and scored their 43rd point with 12 seconds left. They swiped the Miners' inbound pass and put it up for their 45th point with 7 seconds on I he dock. Tatum just held onto the ball as he was standing out of bounds and let the final 7 seconds tick off. ( In high school ball, a team has 10 seconds to pass the ball inbounds during con-i con-i inued play. Alter a timeout or stopped stop-ped play they have 5 seconds to get it in) .,' ; "When it really counted, when the chips were down, our kids did some crucial things correctly to win the game," said head coach Paul Willard. "There is no question that the defense won the game for us. In the final minutes, the whole team set up in good position, took away the lead passes and blocked what they Union) wanted to do." I'nion coach John Vallentine praised Park City's aggressiveness, not only in the final two minutes, but throughout the game. "We didn't handle the defense or i he ball very well tonight." Vallentine Vallen-tine said. "The kids weren't hitting from the outside and we tried to force into the middle too much." King led all scorers with a 22-point personal high for the season. Jeff Keye added ii points and Brett Benson Ben-son put in 6 points via a 6-6 performance perfor-mance a the foul line. ,: ' Willard said he was pleased by the way Benson and Brett Peretti played in coming off the bench. I'eretti snared 5 rebounds for the Miners. The same Park City defense that won the game vs. Union came to life i little too late the following night against Morgan. Although both learns were hanging pretty well inside, in-side, fewer fouls were whistled in this contest. Park City was called for 17 fouls, while Morgan had 12. It was also a game of few turnovers as the Trojans gave up the ball only seven l imes to the Miners' eight. Had either team been able to hit 50 percent of their shots, the game would not have been close. Park City was 6-23 from the field in the first half while Morgan was 7-24. The Miners finished the game shooting 34 percent from the field (16-47), while the Trojans shot 32 percent (15-47). The difference was at the foul line, where Morgan made 11-21 (53 percent) per-cent) while Park City could only hit 4-10 (40 percent). The tight game was marked by six lead changes in the first half, but it was Morgan who went into the locker room with a 4-point lead. The teams traded baskets at the start of the third period. The Trojans built an 8-point advantage when Troy Kartchner hit two free throws and Greg Hatch followed a Miner miss with a 17-foot jumper. Morgan was able to maintain a 7 -point lead at the close of the third quarter as two Miners missed two-shot foul opportunities op-portunities in the final two minutes. Trojan guard Wade Murdock hit all three of his outside jump shots in the first 6 minutes of the last period and the Miners were only able to muster a jumper by Keye, enabling Morgan to build a 38-27 lead with about two minutes left. The Miners, seemingly out of the . game, went into a zone-trap defense and kept the Trojans frozen at 38 p lints, while reeling off 9 points in the next 1:44 to pull within 38-36. In that period. Keye hit two jumpers and a foul shot, while King hit two baskets. The Miner defense began giving Morgan fits. They stole the ball, frustrated. a Trojan into a pushing foul on an inbounds play and fouled one of the team's poorest free-throw hooters, which paid off as he missed miss-ed the front end of a one-on-one with 32 seconds lef t,. , ' "We wanted to foul either Trent Bohman or Mont Johnson, but couldn't let the clock run too far down," said Willard. He tried to keep the ball away from the Hatch kid, who had been Union's most consistent con-sistent shooter all year. Park City did keep it away from Hatch, but in the process they fouled Murdock. He hit both of his free throws with 16 seconds left to put Morgan ahead by 4 points. Park City could not connect on its next possession posses-sion and the ball game became history. "We just needed one more break," Willard said. "Aside from the shooting, the kids played well. On offense of-fense I thought we showed a lot of patience in looking for the good shot." The Miners' next game will be at home against Grantsville Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. Park City defeated Grantsville Grant-sville in its second game of the season 48-44 on the road. a A, f : fern : j" l !! M jot -r vr , -r- - - V,' h": -. ; ... . . ): Park City's squad tries to block out the lane after a missed foul shot by Scott Tatum (21 ) in the second quarter against Union. Free throws sealed the win for the Miners late in the fourth quarter of the contest. . wiwir4tt-S'',wii rMM!trt. u1 tvmmm iwipnntinmu- -&wm' ' 'mmmmmmmmmmmm j) U Park City's Clint Weaver (44) battles Union's big man 6-foot-3 Brett Jarrett (51 ) in Friday's win over Union. |