Basketball Game Preview: Park City Miners vs. Tooele Buffaloes

Park City is on a four-game streak of home losses dating back to last season, Tooele a six-game streak of away losses, but someone's luck will change on Tuesday. The Park City Miners will welcome the Tooele Buffaloes at 5:15 p.m. Given that the two teams suffered a loss in their last games, they both have a little extra motivation heading into this matchup.

Last Friday, Park City came up short against Cottonwood and fell 73-60. While losing is never fun, the Miners can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Utah basketball rankings (they are ranked 100th, while the Colts are ranked 30th).

Park City might have lost, but man, Luke Rice was a machine: he went 9 of 17 on his way to 26 points and eight rebounds. With that strong performance, Rice is now averaging an impressive 16.7 points per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Michael Zagin, who went 6 of 14 on his way to 14 points and three steals.

Even though they lost, Park City smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least eight offensive rebounds in three consecutive contests.

Meanwhile, Tooele came up short against Union on Saturday, falling 53-33. The game marked the Buffaloes' lowest-scoring matchup so far this season.

Park City's loss dropped their record down to 1-6. As for Tooele, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-7.

Park City didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Tooele when the teams last played back in January, but they still walked away with a 70-65 win. Will Park City repeat their success, or does Tooele have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.