A first-round playoff exit can be interpreted in many ways.
The Park City High School boys’ basketball team found itself on the wrong end of a first-round bounce, but the Miners, who finished the season 14-8 the school’s best record since 2002 accomplished many things for a program that had just two wins two seasons ago.
“It’s been hard looking back,” said Park City head coach Caleb Fine. “There’s five kids you’re not going to coach anymore.”
The Miners fell on the road to Richfield Friday night 54-42 in the first round of the 3A state playoffs. Junior forward Britton Buford led Park City with 13 points, while brothers Brian and Jono Schettler chipped in eight points apiece.
Fine said, ultimately, it was a game dictated by the Wildcats’ slowed down, methodical style of play; a style of play at odds with the style of the run-and-gun, quick-strike Miners.
Park City was able to stay within striking distance into the second half, but once the fourth quarter rolled around, the Miners were forced to foul to slow the clock. Richfield hit its free throws (16 of 17) and Park City was unable to claw back to extend its once-promising season.
“It was a weird game,” Fine said. “It’s exactly what we didn’t want to have happen. There was only one way they could beat us and they executed that.
“They did beat us.”
The sour taste left by a first-round exit is tough, Fine said, and knowing he had a team that could have gone further makes it even a tougher pill to swallow.
He said the five seniors on the team were part of a freshman-year squad which won just three games.
Park City’s season started out with a bang as the Miners at one time were 11-3 and ranked No. 3 in 3A. Wasatch head coach Norm Hayter said Park City was a top-five team and was as dangerous as anyone in 3A basketball.
Some of the season’s highlights were: Senior Ryan Ryberg hitting a 3-pointer at the end of a double-overtime game against Bear River to secure Park City’s 72-71 win on Dec. 7.
Fine’s team went on the road to defeat 5A Riverton who was ranked as a top-five team on Jan. 8. Park City’s Jan. 21 showdown with rival and defending 3A champion Wasatch was the highest-attended basketball game in the history of Wasatch High School.
The head coach even said during Park City’s 71-66 road loss to Morgan on Dec. 15, the Morgan student body began chanting “overrated” toward the end of the game.
“That means you’re doing something right,” he said.
But with all the positives that came with a 14-win season, Fine said it still ended on a negative.
“I still had a week worth of coaching my butt off left in me,” he said. “The boys still had a week left of playing their butts off in them.”
Park City does return key players in Jono Schettler, point guard Heath Vincent, Buford, and forwards Jordan Ruda and Brae Dilly all juniors this season.
“Next year we’re going to be really darn good,” Fine said.
He said looking to the future at this point is bittersweet, but he knows a Park City program coming off back-to-back playoff appearances is laying the foundation for the future of Miners basketball.
“We were still feared,” he said. “We made Park City basketball relevant again.”