| Joe Moynier feels no pressure from a North Sanpete defender during a regular season game earlier this year at Carbon High. The Dinos defeated Delta for the second straight time on Tuesday. The victory advances the Dinos into the Class 3A state playoffs which begin Friday in Orem. |
The regular season concluded last week in a dramatic fashion for the Carbon Dinos boys basketball team. The conclusion ended with back-to-back victories for the Dinos which forced them into a playoff crossover game against Delta this past Tuesday. The winner of this game would advance to the state 3A playoffs which begins this Friday in Orem.
The same dramatic fashion which the Dinos finished the season off with continued this week as the Carbon team faced the Delta Rabbits for the second time in less than a week.
The Dinos had squeaked by the Rabbits, 65-61 Saturday. As the team entered the post season match up Tuesday, they not only had high hopes of advancing to the finals, they also had confidence and momentum on their side.
Carbon pulled ahead of the Rabbits early on in the first quarter and managed to maintain the 16-10 lead going into the second quarter. During this time, the Rabbits launched a scoring rally and kept pretty even with the Dinos shooting effort by scoring 13 points while Carbon scored 14 in the quarter.
With the Dinos still sitting comfortably ahead of the Rabbits, the second half kicked off with both teams playing strong and aiming for the most important win.
The final quarter is when the Dinos pulled ahead of Delta as they outscored the Rabbits, 18-13, thus leading to Carbon’s 60-47 victory.
Joe Moynier lead Carbon in scoring with 14 points. He was assisted by Brandon Manzanares and Neal Maynes who each scored 13 points in the Region 8 tiebreaking game.
The Dinos really stepped up on their overall game this past week. With playoff chances diminishing, the team knew that they had to step up and play strong in order to be included in the final event of the season.
As the Dinos stepped up their game, the team really picked up on their defensive efforts. Although the team has been doing quite well all season with their shooting skills, they have struggled defensively.
This is exactly what the ball club did. The defense is what saved the post season playoff spot for the Dinos.
Now the Carbon team will begin the state tourney against Wasatch this Friday night.
The Dinos realize that their playoff birth nearly was lost, but strong playing efforts forced the team into the tournament this past week. The team is ready for Wasatch and could easily defeat the Wasps to advance in the state tourney. After all, the Dinos did defeat the Wasps, 65-64 back in December.