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Show Miners to face tough task in region basketball tournament by Dave Adler Buoyed by some newly acquired confidence and aggressive defense, the Park City Miners start their march down the state basketball tournament road today when they open post-season play against Mount Vernon High School at Coalville, site of the Region 11 round robin playoff action. The Miners will begin the "second season" competition with all the momentum that accompanies a big, 68-58 season-ending road victory, which they earned March 5 at North Rich. Park City, which finished the season with 4-6 record in league play and 6-11 overall, '."ill need all the confidence it can summon. Mount Vernon dealt the Miners 52-45 home court loss on Feb. 1, nnri it haz been ranked among the top five 1-h teams throughout the ;eason. J1:: ijt-year Miners' e-.-oh Paul Wizard said Mv.ut Vernon is m 'Experienced and maui--. team. Their kids have -lay;d together i'or three or four years, and they have good, solid personnel." But the miners are not the same squad that lost to Mount Vernon a month ago. "We're an improved team," said Willard. "Our kids believe they can play with Mount Vemon. And we match up well with them, size wise, better than we do with most teams. Most importantly, our kids gained a lot of confidence from the game against North Rich, and they're ready to go." In subduing North Rich, the Miners, finally, were able to break their season-long third-quarter jinx, which they did behind a balanced offense and an aggressive defense. Throughout the year, the Miners have seen !epds fizzle and opponents ;Vr i the third period because at 3.ei? .rxntic and inconsistent play. But against North Rich, the locals fashioned their best thiH-quarter of the year to take an 11 -point, 57-46 -.-ad into the fourth quarter. 'The kids came out after the halt i just made up their minds to avoid a tmra-quaner disaster, saia Willard. "We played very aggressively aggres-sively on defense and took charge of the game." Willard's troops mounted a 15-point lead at three different junctures only to see the margin wither to seven or eight points when the Miners lost their concentration and fell victim to their old nemesis inconsistency. "We played play-ed pretty well throughout the game, but there were some moments which were exasperating," said Willard. The Miners placed four players in double figures. Sophomore Bruce Buckner led the way with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Scott Tatum, had 10 points and 14 rebounds, while Matt Mapstone and Greg King scored 12 and 10 points respectively. Todd MuUens scored ;ix points, Jeff Keye five, Mark Knudson four and Eric Olsen three to round out the scoring for the Miners. Tip-off for the Park City-Mount Vernon contest is scheduled for 7 :45 p.m. |