| Junior Meagan Garvin puts up a three for Carbon’s lady dinos. |
If stress causes gray hair, then girls’ basketball Coach Cami Carlson may be prematurely gray before the end of the season if the team keeps up their style of play. After a two point win in the final three seconds of play earlier in the week, the Dinos took the Saturday night game into overtime before securing a 30-36 win over Cedar.
The game started out with neither team able to hit their shots. With a basket at the buzzer by Julia Potts, Carbon pulled within two at the quarter making it 4-6. Play picked up a bit in the second half, but missed shots and turnovers continued to plague both squads. Tied at 11, they went into the locker room to regroup. Carlson had to look at the fact that her squad had as many turnovers as points on the board as she went into the locker room to get her team going.
Cedar came out of the locker room colder than they went in as Carbon pulled ahead in the third by a mere four points. The Dinos continued to control the game until the final five minutes of play when Cedar found their range and tied it up. The Dinos had a chance to win, but an ill timed foul by Carbon gave the ball back to Cedar. The Dinos forced a turnover with 4.1 seconds to play. They inbounded and took a shot that hit the rim and bounced out as the clock expired.
In overtime Carbon dominated the play. The only point that Cedar could manage was on a free throw late in the period. The small but vocal crowd erupted as the clock ticked out the game and the Dinos took their second win of the early season.
Carlson was all smiles as she stated, “This was stressful! I hope the whole season doesn’t go this way.” She noted that her team came out with self-assurance and played hard even when their shots weren’t going in. “They are young and don’t know enough not to be confident,” she observed.
Patricia Smith was the leading scorer for Carbon with 11. Megan Garvin added seven; Julia Potts hit six as did Erika Potts. Key for the win was the rebounding efforts of J. Potts, P. Smith and Britini Greenwood.
Next up was a trip across state lines to Colorado. The team won one and lost two in the road trip. Thursday Carbon lost to Central Colorado 44-39. They beat Pallisade on Friday 46-35. Then they went on to lose to Fruita 36-27 on Saturday.
Megan Garvin was the leading scorer for the Dinos in the loss to Central. She was the only player to hit double figures for the team. It was a game that the team could have won. The lead went back and forth the entire game, but it was Central who was able to finish strong and win by five.
Julia Potts stepped up on Saturday and scored 17. Garvin added 14 to assist in the win. Carbon took a slight lead in the first and built on the lead the entire game to take an 11 point win.
J. Potts had another big game on Saturday but the team had no scoring in the fourth as they dropped their final game to Fruita. The Dinos had a lead the entire game, but Fruita went on a 15-2 scoring run in the fourth to reverse the momentum.
The team will have most of the week to figure out what happened in the final quarter of the game as they don’t play again until Thursday December 14th. They will meet up with Dixie at the friendly confines of the Dino gym. They will also go head to head with Pineview at home on Dec. 15. That game will start at 5 p.m. due to a Carbon boy’s game also on the same night.