Mason Vasquez and Cole Cripps had clutch free throws on Wednesday night as the Carbon Dinos moved to 4-0 on the season with a 60-59 win over Juab in front of a home crowd that loved every minute of it.
Last seasons meeting in Nephi between these two teams was just as exciting with the exception of the out come, a Juab win in overtime 68-60.
The contest was a battle from the beginning, with Carbon taking a slim two point lead at the end of the first quarter 13-11. Coming out in quarter two, Juab made their move, giving up just 15 points on defense to the Dinos, as the Wasps took a 32-28 lead into the locker room at half time.
Coming out in the third, the Dinos got the ball first went down and found Braxton Stevenson in the corner who hit a quick layup to cut the Juab lead to two. The Dinos would battle back and forth, and Juab would lead by as much as six in the third when Stevenson would hit another runner to take the lead 44-42 with 2:35 left in the quarter.
The fourth quarter brought about an exciting conclusion to the contest. The fourth began with Carbon up 45-44 and when the final buzzer sounded both teams had scored 15 points in the quarter. Fast-forward to the final 41.5 seconds as Cripps is sent to the line for a 1-and-1 with the score 57-56 Juab, hitting both Carbon goes up 58-56. On the inbound pass, Cripps fouls Juab’s Justin Stevens, who walks up to the line and hit both making the score 59-58 for the Wasps. On the other end of the court Carbon tries to work it in and with 14 seconds left Vasquez drives to the basket and is sent to the ground with a foul. Vasquez gets up and hits both free throws to give Carbon the 60-59 lead . Juab would inbound the ball quickly setting up their offense and working the ball in to the paint where they would have three different looks at the basket and come up short, allowing the Dinos to come out on top.
Stevenson led the way for the Dinos with 19 points, five rebounds and four steals while Zeke Willson added 13 and four boards. Cripps added nine with four rebounds and four assists and Vasquez had four points and five boards.
Up next for the Dinos the will head north for a tournament this weekend, where they will face Grantsville and Enterprise.
The Dinos will be back on their home floor Wednesday when they take on South Summit in a game you can listen to on KRPX 95.3 The Peak.
Game time is set for 7.