HEBER Leading up to the Region 10 showdown with rival and defending 3A champion Wasatch, Park City head coach Caleb Fine specifically had the Wasps’ trademark third-quarter scoring storms on his mind.
Unfortunately, the Miners found themselves smack-dab in the middle of one of those storms Friday night and couldn’t escape.
A 26-25 halftime deficit for the Miners turned into a Wasatch runaway when senior Mike Brown, who poured in 32 points, had a 9-0 run of his own to start the third quarter. The Wasps went on to win 64-40 at home in front of a packed house.
“It’s clearly where the tides turned and we didn’t have what it took,” Fine said. “I told the boys the most mature team would win this game. That run didn’t beat us it’s how we responded to that run that beat us.”
Wasatch had only four scorers in the stat sheet as senior point guard McKay Murdock finished with 11 points and five assists and junior forward Matt Pelo muscled his way to 15 points and six rebounds. Forward Keefer Babbitt rounded out the four scorers finishing with six points, three steals and two rebounds.
After a scrappy first half in which Park City’s defense was able to hold Wasatch in check and forced the Wasps to take outside shots, the Miners had no answer for the best player in 3A, Mike Brown.
Having been saddled with three fouls in the second quarter, Brown took out his frustrations on the Miners once the third quarter commenced.
Brown set the net ablaze as he nailed back-to-back 3-pointers before being fouled by Park City’s senior Brian Schettler on a 3-point shot attempt; it was the Miner forward’s fourth foul.
“We just came out in the second half and didn’t have the same mentality that we had in the first half,” said senior guard Ryan Ryberg. “We just let Brown get those open shots and he got on fire and was unstoppable.”
Schettler’s night was riddled with foul trouble and the team captain never had a chance to make much of an impact on the game.
“It really hurts us,” Fine said. “We’ve got to find a way to keep Brian in the game. He adds another element to our team and we couldn’t keep him in there.”
The Miners were able to score only 15 points in the second half as Park City’s fast-paced, move-it-around offense went AWOL after Brown ignited a 21-8 third quarter for Wasatch.
“Offensively, yeah, we’ve got to fix some things because we couldn’t score, but it’s a very frustrating effort in the second half,” Fine said.
Junior guard Jono Schettler, who was the only Park City player to reach double digits with 12, led the Miners. Senior center Andrew Neuenschwander had an impressive game with eight points off the bench and enjoyed one of his best games of the season.
Park City, now 11-4, had circled this game on its calendar, but the trio of Brown, Murdock and Pelo made the Miners realize just how far they still have to go.
“It’s totally mental,” Fine said. “They were so much mentally stronger than us and that’s why they kicked our butts. They handed it to us. They were just the superior team tonight.
“We keeled over after the run, which was very disappointing. I think we’re better than the score, but we’re clearly not better than (Wasatch) yet.”
Park City’s six-game winning streak came to an abrupt end and the Miners’ most lopsided loss of the year will no doubt lie in the backs of their minds until Feb. 8 rolls around.
“You get to look forward to the next meeting with Wasatch, but we have a lot to take care of until then,” Fine said. “We’ll work hard to stay focused, get better and take care of some of those things. We’ll battle at our house. It’ll be fun.”