It was a bittersweet atmosphere in Jurassic Park on Friday, Feb. 7 as the Carbon Dinos celebrated senior night. Their opponent was also the last team the Dinos defeated as the North Sanpete Hawks traveled to Carbon to close the regular season. A back-and-forth affair throughout, Carbon would narrowly escape with the 59-58 win.
The Dinos would celebrate five seniors to close the regular season, as Cannon Mortensen, Charles Tima, Rydge Butler, Evan Lancaster and Maxwell Carlson were all playing their final game in Jurassic Park.
The Hawks would waste no time getting the scoring started, hitting a pair of threes and adding a transition layup as they jumped out to an 8-0 lead, forcing a Dinos’ timeout.
This timeout would prove to be what Carbon needed to regain their footing, uncorking a 7-0 run of their own. This revival helped them claw back into the contest, however, North Sanpete would still hold the advantage at the end of the first 19-13.
Defense was the theme of the second quarter, with neither team being able to break into double digits in the frame. However, even with this lack of offense, the Dinos were able to win the scoring battle, holding the Hawks to only five points while scoring nine of their own. This resulted in a low-scoring 24-22 tally in favor of North Sanpete at the half.
Both squads broke out of their offensive slump in the second half. Starting in the third quarter, Hawks senior McKay Schlappi found his stroke, driving strong to the basket before being fouled time and time again as he did damage from the charity stripe. For Carbon, juniors Ty Mortensen and Carter Warburton ignited the offense, helping the Dinos again outscore the Hawks and take a 42-39 advantage into the final frame.
The teams would continue to trade blows in the fourth, as neither side wanted to end the regular season with a loss. Every time North Sanpete would have an opportunity to take the lead the Dinos would clamp down on the Hawks.
This duel would come down to free throws, as up three 58-55, Carbon would foul North Sanpete, sending Bryce Swap to the charity stripe where the junior would connect on both shots, cutting into the Dinos’ lead 58-57.
A quick foul off the inbound would send Lancaster to the line, where he would split the trip to raise the advantage to 59-57.
However, an incidental foul sent Swapp back to the line, this time with a chance to tie the game. Swapp’s first shot would be nothing but net as hearts began to pound in the gym 59-58.
The second shot was up, hitting the front of the rim, bouncing to the side, hitting the back off the rim, and … falling harmlessly into the waiting arms of Kyler Orth to seal the game as the Dinos won the thriller 59-58.
“They have a lot of fight in them,” said head coach Taylor Brower in the Eastern Utah Community Credit Union postgame show,” they keep fighting and they keep trying to win. We’ve come up short in some of these games, but I’m glad we got the win tonight.”
Leading the way in the scoring column for Carbon was Ty Mortensen who finished the night with 13 points. The duo of Warburton and Lancaster each added 11, Cannon Mortensen put up seven, Logan Bennett and Orth each had five and Carlson closed with two.
With the regular season completed, the Dinos now advance to postseason play where they will face a familiar foe in the Richfield Wildcats on Saturday, Feb. 15 at Richfield High School. This showdown will be broadcast on KRPX 95.3 the Peak and YouTube at Castle Country Sports-Carbon starting at 12:30 p.m. with the Landon’s Diesel Service Pregame show with tipoff to follow at 1 p.m.