East Carbon boys taken down by Navajo Mountain

By Sun Advocate

The night began mixed up and became even more confusing as the evening went on.
Last Friday night the Navajo Mountain boys basketball team was supposed to show up at about 5 p.m. with a junior varsity and varsity team to take on East Carbon. However, when they arrived they only had varsity players with them and told coach Rex Jepsen that they would like to play their varsity game as soon as possible because of the eight hour bus ride back to their home base.
“What could I say, we wanted to accommodate them,” said Jepsen later that night after the game.
Granting that favor, one would think that the visitors would be a bit nicer to the home team than they were however, as they beat up the East Carbon boys 65-49.
It was an anemic first quarter for both teams, but the Vikings were just a little weaker than the visiting Eagles as they led 12-8 after the first quarter.
In the second period both teams got much hotter. Baskets were traded back and forth with the half time score ending up 33-27 in favor of the visitors.
But if there was a quarter that did the Vikings in it was the third. Behind to begin with, it got even worse as the East Carbon defense failed to stop the Eagles and their offense sputtered. They were outscored 19-9 in the third quarter.
“Our defense just kind of fell apart in the second half,” said Jepsen after the game.
The final quarter was one of those where no one could get the edge as both teams put 13 points through the nets.
East Carbon however had it’s bright spots. Kyle Leonard scored 29 points in a losing effort, one of the biggest totals of the year so far for any player in the 1A ranks. No one else scored in double figures for the team.
This game was a good test for East Carbon against a team they will face during the regular season next year, since both teams will be in the newly created Region 19 along with Green River, Monticello, Monument Valley and Whitehorse.
The Vikings next home game will be on Friday night against St. Josephs High School of Ogden in the Viking gymnasium.