In Carbon’s only loss of the season before last Friday, it could be said that the Snow Canyon defeat was an aberration in an otherwise perfect season. It was a glitch in the mechanism that makes this team run. The Lady Dinos had been tired and had not played their usual game. Many fans claimed that had they played Snow Canyon under usual circumstances, they would have easily won the game. This is probably true.
But what is also true is the gap that must exist between the top five teams in the state. All one can ask after Wasatch disassembled the usually potent Lady Dino offense and took the Carbon defense to the woodshed in a 71-60 victory, is how good Morgan must be to be ranked above the Wasps in the state poll.
Wasatch, who went deep into the state playoffs last year, showed what they are made of on Friday night as their tall front line anchored by the ever present Shalee Fackrell scored almost at will. The Wasps had three players in double figures, but the 6’1″ Fackrell made almost half their points with 33 and got more rebounds than the rest of her team put together as she pulled down 21 boards.
Every one expected a battle between the two state contenders, but it was also expected that the team that won would only do it with an edge in maybe one or two quarters, while the others were even. That did not happen as Wasatch pulled away from the Lady Dinos farther and farther as the game went on.
The first quarter was fairly even, but with Fackrell and Liz Turner’s scoring the Lady Wasps took the lead 24-20.
That was no big deal to the Carbon fans; while Carbon had led in most quarters this year, they have been the comeback kids a number of times. No one was worried.
They should have been.
In the second period Fackrell started to assert her height and power as she scored and scored.
By the half, Wasatch was up by seven; not insurmountable, but an unusual circumstance for the Carbon girls to be in.
In the third period, Carbon’s quick hands kept Wasatch from scoring much, but on the other end of the court, the Lady Wasps stung Carbon time and time again on defense and were still able to win the quarter by one point 10-9.
In the final quarter the Lady Dinos tried to rally, but Fackrell would respond every time Carbon would start to rally. Again the Lady Wasps won the quarter, and the game.
In most games this year Wasatch has dominated the other teams it has played almost at every turn. In their game against Carbon they won in small increments that ate away at the Lady Dinos base of defense and speed.
Carbon had only two players in double figures, Chelsey Warburton scored 15 and sister Cassie put in 12. Brittany Pollastro also added 12. Both were held below their averages for the year, just as Carbon’s scoring was held in check by small amounts each quarter of the game.
The Lady Dinos will probably still be ranked fourth this week, even with the loss. They have two losses on their record, but both are to top five teams.
This Friday night they will face their final tune up before the season begins on Jan. 10 against the Delta in the Dinogym. In the tradition of facing at least one 5A team each year they will play the Cottonwood Lady Colts at home at 7 p.m.
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