The Carbon Dinos moved to 3-0 on the young season with a comfortable 75-63 win over the North Sanpete Hawks in Mount Pleasant Wednesday night.
Doubling up the Hawks in the first half, the Dinos took a hefty 40-20 lead into the break. Despite being outscored in both of the final two quarters, Carbon did more than enough to keep a strangle hold on a double-digit advantage leading to the season’s third win.
“North Sanpete has a bunch of big, scrappy kids that rebound well and are very athletic,” said first year head coach Jared Butler. “Our kids didn’t play intimated. Right off the bat they shot the ball well, which is something I’ve been waiting for.”
Led by senior Brady Gagon’s 14 points, the Dinos shot 40-percent from the field in Wednesday’s win. The team produced 26 points in the second quarter, setting a new mark for a season high in any individual quarter.
Junior Merrick Morgan finished with 13 points including three makes from beyond the three-point line. Fellow juniors Preston Condie and Noah Bradford both contributed 12 points, while Kaleb Nelson and Caleb Winfree ended with eight a piece.
The Carbon second unit continues to be a bright spot for the team as they remain one of only three unbeaten 3A teams. Nelson and Gagon currently lead the team in scoring, while juniors Bradford, Winfree and Hatch are averaging more than eight points a tilt.
“We had arguably three of our better players sitting out in the first half with foul trouble,” said Butler. “Our bench play was great. We don’t lose a lot when we go to our bench and that really is huge.”
Starting the season with a difficult road heavy schedule, Wednesday’s win is the first of four consecutive road contests. The Dinos will continue the road trip with a game Friday night against American Leadership Academy in Spanish Fork. Saturday the team will travel to Salt Lake to meet Judge Memorial.
“We still have a long ways to go and I just want the kids to relax and not put extra pressure on ourselves,” said Butler when asked about the lengthy road trip. “Making foul shots on the road is huge and we did a great job with that against North Sanpete. Hopefully that kind of stuff will build this team’s confidence.”
Live coverage of Friday’s game against American Leadership Academy will begin at 6:30 on KRPX 95.3 The Peak. Tip-off will follow at 7:00 p.m.. The broadcast can also be heard on any mobile device by downloading the KRPX Radio app.