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Miners boys’ basketball team drops opener 55-41

Bosten Van Der Veur, pictured here in a game last year, led the Miners with 19 points on Tuesday night at Skyline. Park Record File Photo
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The way Utah high school basketball is set up, it will be 15 games before the Park City High School boys’ team plays a game that will affect playoff seeding.

With such a lengthy non-region schedule, PCHS coach Caleb Fine hopes to challenge his young team with games against tough teams like Skyline, the Miners’ opponent on Tuesday night.

"It’s always challenging to start this way," Fine said. "But I wouldn’t want it any other way. I don’t think going 0-15 would be a good thing, but the goal is to improve for the region season."

After Tuesday’s 55-41 loss, a couple areas in need of improvement became clear to Fine.

"We’re going to have to improve on two things to have a chance," he said. "We have to rebound. We were out-rebounded 36 to 22. And Skyline got easy transition buckets on us and they’re not a typical transition team."

With the home opener approaching on Tuesday, Dec. 3, Fine said those two areas are going to be crucial against Springville.

"Springville is one of the best transition teams in the state and one of the better rebounding teams," he said.

With only two seniors on the roster for the 2013-14 season, Fine said the lack of experience was evident on Tuesday night.

"It’s early and we’re young and it showed," he said. "Unfortunately, at the end of the day, we weren’t good enough defensively. We gave up too many easy baskets."

But, in this season of giving thanks, Fine said he has plenty to be encouraged by from this Miner squad.

"We had a great third quarter comeback when the boys got it within six," he said. "They want to compete and they’ll play hard for me. I’m blessed to have a team that’s coachable. I love the group of guys I have."

Though the team struggled against the 4A opponent, junior point guard Bosten Van Der Veur had a good night, scoring 19 points and knocking down three three-pointers.

Logan Holbrook and Beau Story each contributed seven points and Reid Marks added six points.

Fine anticipates the offense will improve once the defense settles into a rhythm.

"It’s hard to win a game without transition buckets," he said. "Our offense slowed down to a crawl at times and it made it hard to score. It wasn’t pretty, but we’re young and we’ll continue to improve."

The Miners will get another chance to test their skills against a bigger opponent on Tuesday night at Park City High School. The varsity game against Springville is set to tip off at 7 p.m.


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