At the end of the volleyball season last fall, the girls on the team felt incomplete. For many it was their senior season and they had failed to win the state championship, instead taking second to a great Morgan team.
But while most of the community who attended the game was driving home that Saturday night celebrating the team’s great finish, the girls on that team were having something to eat and getting ready to board the bus to Carbon County.
Up to the point of eating they were all lamenting about what they could have done different. But as soon as they boarded the bus the conversation turned to basketball.
“They started to talk about how good it could be this season,” said head coach Bruce Bean at the time. “Their thoughts immediately turned toward going to the state tournament this year.”
The girls that comprise this year’s Lady Dino basketball squad had three bones to pick at the end of the basketball season, and people who know the individuals on this team would not want to be in their way.
The first bone is already out of the way. They disposed of Region 9’s Canyonview High School last Saturday night in a 46-34 victory, clearing the way to the main state tournament in St. George and at the same time overcoming the bugaboo which struck them in the form of another Region 9 team last year: Pine View’s victory in the Dinogym on a last second shot which knocked them out of the mix.
The second bone they have to pick will only come if they can win their game against Bear River on Thursday afternoon at 4:10 p.m. in Burns Arena on the Dixie College campus. A rematch with Snow Canyon who beat them earlier in the season giving them only one of two defeats. That match could also happen if both the Lady Dinos and the Warriors lose, but the chances of both teams losing their first round game are not very likely.
And the third bone is to be able to meet Morgan and much of the same crew who defeated them for the state title in volleyball in the championship game. That is a likely scenario, considering they are in opposing brackets from one another.
But first things first. The team left Wednesday afternoon for St. George after a pep rally in their honor. They went to the bright and warm sunshine of Utah’s Dixie, but they will get little time to enjoy it, because playing Bear River will be no picnic in the park.
The Lady Bears feature the second leading scorer in the state in Courtnie Woemer who is averaging 18.1 points per game, just slightly higher than the third place scorer Carbon’s Chelsey Warburton at 17.8.
The Lady Bears have another claim to fame that pertains to the Carbon team too: they are the only team that beat Morgan in Region 11 this year and they tied the Lady Trojans for the top spot. Morgan’s only other loss was to Wasatch.
So it’s do or die time. A loss relegates any team to a lower position in the final rankings. Two losses a team is out of the tournament altogether.
This is Carbon’s chance, and the chance for the three senior starters, to put themselves in a great place in the Dino’s history book.
In other games on Thursday Snow Canyon (21-1) will play Union (15-7) at 5:50 p.m.
In the lower bracket Wasatch (21-1) takes on hometown Dixie (16-6) at 7:30 p.m. and not-to-far-away-from-St. George Hurricane (17-6) hooks up with Morgan (18-2) for the night cap at 9:10 p.m.
Carbon girls face first state opponent Thursday
