| Brandon Manzanares ensues battle under the basket with a Tooele defender earlier this year. The Dinos continued preseason action last Saturday as the team competed on the road against Park City, a game which came down to the wire with Carbon losing 60-61. Manzanares scored 15 points against the Miners in the non-region match up. |
With only a few weeks left to prepare for the regular season, the Carbon High Dinos boys basketball team traveled to Park City to take on the Region 10 Miner team. The game was intense as many before for the Dinos, but the outcome fell short of Carbon’s expectations.
The Dinos made the long bus ride to Park City last Saturday where the team faced the struggling Miners. It was a game which would test both teams.
From the opening whistle to the final buzzer, the Dinos stayed neck to neck with the Miners. In fact, in the first quarter, the teams were deadlocked at 14 points.
Altough the Dinos outscored the Miners 13-7 in the second quarter, the six point margin was not a comfortable enough lead for the Dinos entering the half.
By the start of the second half of play, the Dinos found themselves fighting to retain the lead. As the final seconds of the ball game rolled around, the Dinos and the Miners were deadlocked once again.
This is when Carbon sent Park City’s leading scorer Jeff Hackett to the line. The single free throw was good by the Miner which boosted Park City ahead of Carbon by one.
With only 1.5 seconds left in the game, the Dinos failed to edge past the Miners, thus equaling the Dinos 61-60 loss to the Region 10 team.
The win was only the second for the Miners who currently stand at 2-7 during the preseason. The loss also brings the Dinos to 4-5 in preseason action.
Leading scorer for the Dinos was Joe Moynier who completed the game with 19 points. Moynier has dominated the boards for Carbon so far this year.
Currently, Moynier is ranked ninth in the state in scoring with an average of 17.89 points per game. So far in the preseason, Moynier has scored 161 points.
Also assisting in the scoring was Brandon Manzanares who posted 15 points against the Miners. Neal Maynes followed with 10 points and Tyson Hackwell with seven.
Despite the preseason loss, the Dinos are prepared for the regular season which begins next week. The team is loaded with talented players and can rely on both the starters and the bench squad.
Just as every team does, the Dinos do have a few bugs to work out before Region 8 competition begins. Some of these bugs include shooting consistancy. From time to time, the Dinos seem to hit a shooting slump. The team has improved on this, but at times it seems as if preseason woes come back to haunt the Carbon team.
Next on the Dinos preseason roster is Cedar City whom the Carbon team will host Friday evening at 7 p.m.
The season will begin Jan. 8 for the Dinos when the team travels to Castle Dale to take on the second ranked 3A team, the Emery Spartans.