| The Lady Vikings Janet Lowe holds the ball above her head as she decides which way to pass the ball during a rally in the first half when the East Carbon team came back from a 10 point deficit to almost draw even at the break. |
If there was a time for the East Carbon girls team to get a win at home, it was against the Wendover Lady Wildcats. Earlier in the season the team had defeated the western Utah squad 35-27 on their home court.
But Wendover would have none of that on Tuesday night as they took one away from the Lady Vikings 34-31 in one of the closest girls game the Viking gym has seen this season.
But it wasn’t always close. In fact at times in the first period of play it looked like the girls from East Carbon might be driven out of their own gym.
In that period the Wendover players, it seemed, could not miss the basket. With 2:50 left in the period the Lady Wildcats had East Carbon down 14-3.
But then something happened to East Carbon as they began to rally. They didn’t let the Wendover girls score again in the period and put in five points themselves.
Then in the second period they kept it up despite the fact that Wendover applied pressure almost all the way down the court.
By the halt the score read 20-18 in favor of Wendover, but the East Carbon girls had carved up that big lead.
The third quarter was a disaster for both teams, but worse for East Carbon. The defense on both ends was good, but Wendovers was just a little better as they held East Carbon to only one basket, while putting in 6 themselves.
Going into the final quarter six points down, the Lady Vikings were determined to cut Wendovers scoring down to size.
And they did, but they just didn’t whittle it down enough.
East Carbon came out playing tough and began to score, but despite producing more points than they had produced in any other quarter (11) they still allowed the Lady Wildcats to produce 8 and that was enough for Wendover to win.
Coach Ryan Hepworth got some even handed scoring out of his team on this go around though. Amanda Hepworth ended up with 10, Donna Turner put in 9, Samantha Madrid scored 7 and Janet Lowe netted 5.
Lowe and Turner were very good on the boards on both ends of the court on this night, but unfortunately even the offensive rebounds they pulled down didn’t go back through the basket enough times.
The Lady Wildcats now play Tintic at home tonight (Thursday) at 6 p.m.