DRAPER — For most of the first half Friday, Juan Diego played like a team missing its star.
It was tentative, uncertain and indecisive, everything you’d expect from a team whose leader in points, assists and steals was on the bench in street clothes with a sprained knee.
With first place in Region 10 on the line against Park City, it was a very inopportune time for the Soaring Eagle to be gun-shy.
“One of the things we talked about during a timeout and then again at halftime is we don’t need one hero. Sometimes they might’ve thought, ‘Gabe (Colosimo) is gone so I’ve got to really do it,’ and if you have that mindset you’re going to be pressing too much, probably taking bad shots,” said Juan Diego coach Drew Trost. “We talked a lot about, 'We don’t need a hero, we just need you to run the offense, be patient and really try and get shots.'”
That’s precisely what Juan Diego did in the second half, calmly pulling away from Park City for the 54-46 victory to improve to 3-0 in region while handing Park City its first league loss.
Maliik Fagan-Foster picked up the bulk of the scoring slack with Colosimo out, scoring a career-high 21 points, with Joel Bruder chipping in with 13.
With the game tied 21-21 after Park City’s Logan Holbrook drained a three-quarter-court heave at the halftime buzzer, Juan Diego methodically pulled away in the second half, stretching the lead to 33-26 by the end of the third and then 38-26 early in the fourth.
The Miners responded with a 7-0 run — with Sam Kingdon scoring all seven — trimming the Soaring Eagle's lead to 38-33 with 4:23 remaining. That was as close as they could get, however, as Bruder responded with a baseline 3-pointer and then Juan Diego hit 9 of 14 free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
As calmly as Juan Diego executed offensively in the second half, the defense was brilliant all game.
First and foremost it limited Park City’s Bosten VanDerVeur to just four points — 18 below his season average on zero field goals — and nobody else could get an open look either.
Park City shot just 30 percent from the field and only scored six points in the paint compared to 22 for Juan Diego.
“We had a whole week to practice and prepare for (VanDerVeur), and I think the guys did a really superb job of executing our game plan,” said Trost. “We were trying to really get on them 'cause they can really shoot, and always contest shots, and I thought we did a really good job.”
Kingdon finished with 14 points in the loss for Park City, but 12 of those came in the fourth quarter when his team was in frantic catch-up mode.
Deseret News prep editor and Real Salt Lake beat writer.