| Blake Najera takes a jump shot during the fourth quarter of Friday’s game. Najera had seven in the contest. |
The Carbon high gym was buzzing with life Friday night as Castle Country rival, Emery pulled into town. Although they have played well the Dino’s have struggled to close the deal and started the evening with a 3-12 record. Conversely the Spartans came in with a 7-7 record and looking for their first region 8 victory.
The Spartans succeeded besting the Dinos 63-52, in a game that had many highs and lows for the home team.
Zack Jones got the crowd into the game early when he connected for three early in the first quarter. That energy stayed with the Dinos through the first portion of play which ended with the Spartans up by one.
Physical play and spot-on three point shooting in the second quarter gave Emery a visible confidence boost as the Spartans pulled ahead to go in at the half up by 11.
Carbon rebounded nicely in the third quarter with a strong performance by Eric Buchmiller who had 15 on the night leading the Dino’s in scoring.
Emery began to pull away as the fourth quarter progressed but two late threes from Jones got the score to a single digit margin and the crowd back in the game for Carbon.
The late rally was squashed however, as Emery shot very consistently from the foul line to pull away late in the game.
Zack Jones had 14 points on the night with four, three point buckets. Buchmiller scored 15. Blake Najera and Dustin Pollastro both contributed seven and Joey Keller rounded out the Dino score with two.
The boys will play next in Delta on Jan. 26. The Rabbits are ranked second in the state with a 13-0 record. The Dinos next home game will be Jan. 30 against North Sanpete with tip-off at 5:15 p.m. for junior varsity and 7 p.m. for the varsity contest.