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Show A tale of two losses:; close, and not so close The Park City High School boys' basketball team travelled to Wasatch and Morgan this past weekend to play in the Summit Tournament Tour-nament not expecting much. After all, both schools are larger (2A) with big basketball basket-ball programs, and have good teams year after year. And the Miners came away empty handed, losing both games. But the losses were not similar, in spite of the similarities between the Wasatch and Morgan teams. Against Wasatch Friday Park City held its own, staying close until midway through the fourth quarter . before going down 68-50. But the team suffered a severe letdown after that game, and came out flat against Morgan Saturday night, ending en-ding up on the short end of an embarrassing 95-50 score. "It seemed that the team had its heart set on Friday night's game, and when they didn't win that one ... We are treating Saturday night as a learning experience," said Critchlow Monday. It was the guards who paced the Park City effort against Wasatch. Both Kenny Ken-ny Collins and Steve Winchester Win-chester had good games pumping in outside shots to keep the Miners within striking range when the inside in-side game faltered against the large front line of the Wasps. Against Morgan, the whole scenario was different, except ex-cept for the first few minutes of the game. The Miners played close at the game's outset. But as the Morgan . shooters sunk more and more shots (their percentage percen-tage from the field was an unbelievable 81 percent), the Miners got frustrated, and it showed. The deficit was 51-16 at the half, and Critchlow felt it was time to start pulling out the starters to keep them from getting humiliated. "It was just one of those nights where everything clicked for them and nothing, absolutely nothing, did for us," said Critchlow. "We have totally put that game out of our minds." The team has better memories of Friday night, where the outcome wasn't decided until the final four minutes. In that game the i i i l r l - .. ' .. , -I,,. W'"St : ; ........ .. ' " ' , - : . y " ' :iv ' , , f t y .? r , s m , I 7Ssl II h : - " eh lira c. " V: - ; .V If , " --.' - y - ' - " v A A : , : ' ..-- l ' -; 1 v. '' T v.- - -1 : , i, I ,.. , ', " "'' J -T , - " X ' ' . U' ' ;- - - ; ' ' '" ": - 1 '': ' ' ; "Keep it up," Coach Kent Critchlow seems to be saying as the Miners enjoyed an 11-4 lead early in ' the Wasatch game. They didn't. Five minutes later it was 17-11 Wasatch. Miners sianeu oui iasi, jumping to an 11-4 lead. But the more physical Wasps came back with 13 unanswered unan-swered points to take the lead at 17-11. But the Miners refused to fold, struggling back to within one point of the lead at 19-18. Winchester sparked the comeback with a steal and a twisting layup. Again the Wasps spurted ahead, pumping in 11 straight points to go up 30-18. At the half it was 30-21. Ignoring the cheers of the Heber crowd, the Miners managed to stay in the game, thanks largely to the outside shooting of Collins and Winchester. Forward Matt Mapstone also got a hot hand. Collins ended the night with 17 points while Winchester Win-chester added 13 and Map-, Map-, stone had nine. The Miners rallied to within seven at the four-minute four-minute point of the fourth period, but then a questionable travelling call on the Miners seemed to turn the momentum. Critchlow immediately called time out to protest the call. Critchlow later remarked that the referee said he wasn't sure about the call himself, but that he wouldn't change it. After that point the Wasps surged ahead 62-46, and en ded the game up by 18 Rt 68-50. 68-50. Using his rating system, which says the team needs a 35 score to win the ame, Critchlow gave his team a, 20 after the Wasatch game. By contrast, in the Morgan game the team score was -10. Critchlow identified one problem area as free throw shooting. Against the Wasps the Miners shot only 10 of 24 for 42 percent, a good 30 percentage per-centage points under what it should be. " Fouls were another problem. The Miners have had trouble in all their games with bad defensive positioning, which Critchlow said is the cause for most fouls. It was especially costly against Wasatch. Both Wasatch and Morgan played a man-to-man defense, defen-se, the first seen by the Miners this season, and it confused the team. Critchlow Crit-chlow said Park City repeatedly tried to force the ball inside without setting up a play first. But on attitude he gave the team high marks. After Monday's practice he said the team was still a bit down from the humiliation of Saturday night, but was bouncing back well. With the two 2A losses behind them, the Miners are looking ahead to today's game against the Duchesne Eagles in Park City. Critchlow Crit-chlow said the Region 11 rival has a big front line, and normally plays a zone defense. defen-se. But he said he thinks the Eagles may play a man-toman defense to try to exploit the Miner weakness evident in the Summit Tournament. Game time is 5:45 p.m. for the junior varsity, and 7:30 p.m. for the varsity. itlS |