| Samantha Smith plays some tough defense as she gets in the face of a Delta player in the first match up between the two teams. Carbon defeated Delta again last Thursday by the score of 43-30 |
The Lady Dinos started the second half of region play with a solid win over Delta last Thursday night. Carbon defeated the Rabbits 43-30 to up their region record to 4-1. That keeps them tied with North Sanpete for the number two slot and Emery remaining on top and undefeated in region play.
The Dinos helped themselves to a five point lead to start the game. They increased it to eight going into the locker room. At half time the score was 25-17 in favor of the Lady Dinos.
Coach Carlson felt like her team came out of the locker room too content with their lead and didn’t play with the intensity they needed to finish off a game. The Rabbits limited the Carbon offense to only four points in the third. The side of the game that Coach Carlson feels remains consistent is the defense and even though offensively the team sputtered, the defense remained strong and they limited Delta to only seven points to keep a five point lead going into the final period of play.
Carbon kicked it up a notch and got their offense back on track. The Dinos finished off with 14 in the final period to take the win by 13.
Only one Dino scored in double figures in the win. The Smith sisters were the leading scorers with Patricia hitting for 11 and Samantha contributing eight. Julia Potts added seven. Patricia Smith went 7-7 from the line. Emily Cox pulled in eight rebounds to lead the defensive effort.
The team is now 13-4 on the season and have only three region games left. Next week may be the decisive week for the Dinos as they have a North Sanpete team coming into town. Carbon has taken every match-up with North Sanpete this season in both volleyball and now basketball and the Hawks would like to change that with a win on the Dino home floor.
Games against North Sanpete have been as intense as any state tournament game in the past few years and the Dinos expect nothing less on Tuesday. They know that their “A” game is going to be necessary for another win over the Hawks and a lock for at least second place in the region.
A trip to Emery will follow on Thursday. Coach Carlson feels like the game will be as much of a mental battle as anything. A win will be Carbon’s only shot at going into the state tournament as the number one seed.
Tuesday’s match-up will be at Carbon High with tip-off at 7 p.m. The Thursday game will be at Castle Dale with game time also at 7 p.m.
Correcting an earlier story; the Carbon Lady Dinos did not play Morgan earlier in the season. They were defeated by Wasatch in a non-region match-up. Since many on the basketball squad played on the volleyball squad as well, they were looking for revenge from the state volleyball tournament defeat that left them with a second place finish.