It may have been the middle of the holiday season and a time for giving, but the Carbon boy’s basketball team wasn’t about to give in during their game with the Ogden Tigers in their Weber County lair last week as they barely beat the northern Utah 3A team from Region 11 on Friday night.
Once again it was Jake Wood who came through in a pinch to score the winning points, this time sewing up the game with only a few seconds to go in overtime from the charity stripe. But it was Wood’s overall performance and the full return of Matt King that brought the Dinos their fifth win of the season.
The game started ominously as the 3-6 Tigers looked like they were going to run away with the contest in the first half. In the first quarter the kids from Ogden scored 20 points while their defense and a jittery Carbon offense led to only four points for the Dinos.
The second period brought near a reversal in the teams roles as Carbon scored 13 points, and while that was not a stellar performance offensively, their defense suddenly woke up and smelled the coffee. They nearly kept the Tigers from scoring at all as they held them to only five points.
That quarter must have brought the Dinos around as they came out in the third quarter and began to pick up the game where they had left off, at least offensively. They scored 17 in that quarter while keeping the Tigers off the offensive boards and held them to only 12 points. At that point the score was 37-34, with the Tigers still in charge, but the Dinos coming on fast.
In the fourth period Carbon kept creeping up on the Tigers lead and finally caught them with a few minutes to go. At that point Ogden started to rally, holding on just enough to keep it even up through the buzzer and sending the game into overtime with a 46-46 tie.
In overtime the teams traded baskets, but in the end a foul against Wood cost the Tigers the game as he calmly put in the free throws needed to win the game.
Overall Wood got 16 points in game with nine of those points coming on big three point shots when Carbon needed them the most.
It appears that Matt King has returned from the injury he received earlier in the preseason in fine form as he contributed 14 points and was a big factor on the boards during the game.
The boys team at Carbon now have a few days away from competition until they face 4A American Fork in Utah County on Jan. 8.
Then they begin the Region 8 league season on Jan. 11 with a game against Delta on the Rabbits home court.
That’s when all that tough preseason experience they have been getting against tough opponents will come in handy.
Dino’s edge Ogden on Wood’s free throw
