| Carbon senior Danielle Martino goes up for a shot. She had five points against Delta in the Lady Dinos 43-35 victory. |
Carbon girls coach Bruce Bean knew it would not be an easy year for the Lady Dinos team.
Not only is there always a burden to bear when defending a state championship, but he also knew the league was changing its dynamics when Granite moved over from Region 10 and Juan Diego came up from the 2A ranks in realignment this year.
However, there has to be some comfort in the fact that some of the opponents are the same old teams.
Like Delta.
The Carbon girls have pretty much dominated Delta’s basketball team for years and it appears that won’t be much different this year as the Lady Dinos took a 43-35 win over the Lady Rabbits at the Dinogym on Tuesday night.
However it wasn’t easy to win; Carbon was behind until the fourth quarter with Delta out scoring them 30-27 in the first three quarters of the game. Some of that was due to 13 turnovers by the Lady Dinos.
But as Bean has always preached to his teams, defense will win it for a squad every time.
In the fourth quarter Carbon smothered the Lady Rabbits with a stifling defense which held Delta to only one field goal in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile the girls clad in blue and white on the court were able to put 16 points through their basket to seal the victory.
Once again Tabby Cummins, the little sharp and hard nosed guard played her heart out on both ends of the court. She not only harassed the opposition, but also led the team with 12 points.
Once again too, Carbon had a fairly balanced scoring effort. Post player Jamie King put in 10 points and played some good defense on Deltas big players.
Megan Garvin also had a good game with eight points. Meesha Rasmussen scored seven critical points, while Danielle Martino set five through the hoop and freshman Julia Potts had one.
“We almost gave the game away in that first half, ” said Bean in an interview on Wednesday morning. “Those 13 turnovers were just too much. In the second half we reduced that to six. I think we took a big step toward being a better team last night.”
The win sent Carbon to the top of the Region 8 standings, which while it is too early in the season to tell how it will end up, is a good sign of a healthy and positive Carbon team.
With that the Lady Dinos must now face two road games in a row with Juan Diego (5-8) tonight (Thursday) and then North Sanpete next Tuesday.
The Lady Dinos next home game will take place next week (Thursday) against powerful Emery (presently tied for first place with Carbon in the region and a team that has a 10-3 overall record.