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Miners rebound in big way vs. Wildcats

Adia Waldburger, of the Record staff

The Summit County battle between Park City and South Summit in prep girls basketball turned out to be more of a fizzle, as the Miners served up a 55-19 drubbing of the Wildcats on Tuesday night.

The win marked the first time this season that Park City turned in such a sizeable victory. The difference was in the scoring column. Besides a usual high-scoring night from forward Lauren Deane with 17 points, seven other Miners got on the board a far cry from four scorers in the last game just days before.

Even with a total team effort, Park City assistant head coach Matt Mapstone said the night belonged to guard Lacey Jones, who turned in a season-high, 15-point game. Mapstone said the difference was that Jones finally gained confidence in her new role as point guard.

" Lacey Jones, Lacey Jones, Lacey Jones," Mapstone said. "We’ve been waiting for Lacey to break out and she finally did."

The coaches also shifted her role a bit for Tuesday’s game and put the ball in other players’ hands so Jones could be in better position to score throughout the game. Jones combined her 15 points with 7 assists, helping her to account for 29 of Miners’ total score.

"She was directly responsible for those points and that’s what we need her for," Mapstone said.

Other Miners also had big nights. Laurel Christensen had five points and 11 rebounds. Ali Tingey turned in a six-point performance and made big plays for the Miners.

"We had three genuine offensive threats in Deane, Jones and Tingey in that one as opposed to only one in previous games," Mapstone said.

Mapstone said that leadership from the upperclassmen was the key in the South Summit game and will become increasingly important as the Miners begin regular season competition with a game scheduled against Union on Friday night.

"It makes a lot of difference with the underclassmen becoming solid varsity players. It gives them someone to look up to," Mapstone said.

In the South Summit game, freshman Whitney Bailey and junior Aubrey Warner each earned four points and fellow sophomore Jessie Pitcher had two points.

The Miners showed on Tuesday that they had addressed their preseason struggles with shooting and rebounding, and now the coaching staff is just hoping that the confidence and effort will continue throughout Region 10 competition.

"To hold South Summit to 19 points, they just feel great, but the real test comes in the next game," Mapstone said.

Test-time will come Tuesday night when the Miners face the undefeated Morgan Trojans on the road. The league-leading 10-0 Trojans have already established themselves as the team to beat in Region 10 and the Miners will need to have a big night to keep up with them.

"We need to get the first one," Mapstone said. "The best situation is to win against Union and head into Morgan and Wasatch on a roll."

The Miners will travel to face Morgan on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 5 p.m.

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