Oh what a difference a year can make. In its inaugural season last year, the Corner Canyon boys basketball team struggled through the growing pains of a new program on its way to a 7-16 season.

There is no sophomore slump in the program’s second year, however.

Corner Canyon is posting some key victories this season, despite still having a mostly underclassman line up.

“We have four seniors on the team and nine juniors,” Charger coach Tony Cannon said. “We do play a lot of underclassmen, but they got a lot of varsity experience last year.”

 The four seniors are Easton Price, Tanner Argyle, Michael Ebeling and Riley Ogden. Although all but Ebeling have been instrumental in the first 11 games of the season, only Argyle has earned a starting position on the team as Corner Canyon still relies on several talented juniors.

“Argyle plays on the wing for us,” Cannon said. “He is one of our best shooters. He works hard and runs the court well.”

Ebeling is working his way back into the Charger rotation after sitting out the first eight games with a broken collarbone. A multi-sport athlete, Ebeling suffered his injury during the football season.

“He was our starting quarterback, and he also plays shortstop on the baseball team,” Cannon said of Ebeling. “He has been our leading scorer in the three games he has been healthy.”

Ebeling poured in 17 points in a 70-65 loss to Timpview Dec. 30. He added another 13 points in a close 60-61 loss to Orem Jan. 6, and lit the nets for 27 points to lead the Chargers to a 60-58 region victory over Skyline Jan. 9.

“It is good to get him back to his playing level,” Cannon said. “He is a gifted athlete and a team leader for us.”

The backbone of the team still lies with Braxton Coon, Brayden Johnson and Cameron Dougherty. Johnson and Dougherty are 6’6” juniors that were starters as sophomores. Coon is a 6’0” guard playing the point position. The trio have combined for half of the Charger scoring, tallying 352 of Corner Canyon’s 648 points this season.

Although Corner Canyon is sitting on a 6-5 record this season, the Chargers have been in all but one of the losses to the end. Only former 5A champion Bingham has beaten Corner Canyon by more than eight points this season, and most losses have been decided by only two baskets. Cannon attributes the turnaround from last season to the experience the boys garnered by playing varsity as sophomores and juniors.

“We paid the price last year,” Cannon said. “But we have more experience now and are benefitting this year. We are hoping it continues in the future.”