Lacking in size this upcoming season, the Carbon Lady Dinos will not be lacking in speed when they take the floor Friday night against Morgan to kick off the 2014-15 season.
Though the Lady Dinos lost two six-footers from last year’s team in Shelby Cornforth, now playing at USU-Eastern, and Annika Hansen, the team still has plenty of weapons from which to choose in their up-tempo offense used by head coach Ted Bianco.
“Our goal is to get up and down the floor as quick as we can,” he said. “We can’t let teams pound it down and get it low on us, we have to push it.”
A plethora of guards on this year’s team will aid Bianco in his design to push the tempo.
Jaylie Jensen, Taylor Oliver, Karina Ivory, Jordan Scoggins and Lindsey Blanc, among others, will see time in the backcourt for the Dinos.
Beth Child and Morgan Hillam will provide the size in the team’s thin frontcourt.
Blanc will look to step in to the point guard role with the absence of Katie Basinger, last year’s second-leading scorer. Blanc broke her foot during track season last year and re-broke the same foot before volleyball season this year.
Bianco will be counting on his entire team to get it done this year.
“For us, it’s going to be one game at a time,” he said. “Hopefully all of our kids do what is necessary to win games.”
With four of the five teams in Region 12 finishing within one game of each other a season ago in the region standings, Bianco said this year could be very similar.
“I think the region is pretty much the same,” he said. “A lot of parity. Nobody really stands out this year.”
North Sanpete ran away with the Region 12 crown a year ago going 7-1, but losing two of its top three scorers from a year ago, the task to repeat would be daunting.
With a wide-open region and a ton of speed, the Lady Dinos have a great opportunity to improve on their quarterfinal playoff appearance in last year’s state tournament.
The Lady Dinos kick off the season Friday against Morgan at 7 p.m. The game can be viewed live on ETV Channel 10.