| The Lady Spartans basketball team win first place at the tournament in St. George over the weekend. |
Before a packed house in St. George, with hundreds and hundreds of Emery High fans cheering and sometimes jeering the officials, the Lady Spartans successfully met their last preseason goal, win the state 3-A championship.
At the tournament, Emery had no easy task. With the luck of the seeding seemingly favoring the other bracket, Emery went about their job of winning. The top ranked Spartans first drew number two Hurricane, Emery won 54-49. Emery then drew number three Wasatch, Emery also won 46-41. Emery then played the lowest ranked team in the whole tournament for the championship, but one that seemed to have the favor of the Gods with them or the luck of the Irish or something as they had won three straight upsets, and Emery defeated Dixie 51-40 and had their very first girls state basketball championship.
In that championship game, Camille Fehlberg left no doubt as to whom will be named the 3-A MVP by the major newspapers in a couple of weeks. Camille was simply everywhere, going about her business and doing her job. Camille took 10 shots in the game and made 7 of those including making 3 of 4 behind the three-point line. Camille was 10 for 13 from the free throw line. She also had 3 steals, 4 rebounds and 5 assists as she ran the Emery offense.
| ShiAnne Allred gets ready to shoot the ball. |
Camille was already MVP in the hearts and minds of the Emery fans.
Also with an impact in the game was center Rachel Rasmussen. Although Rachel would have liked to score better, she effectively shut down Dixie’s best scorer. The Dixie center scored the first 6 points for the Flyers before Rachel limited her to only one basket through the last 30 minutes of the ball game. Rachel also pulled down 9 rebounds, blocked 2 shots and had an assist and a steal as she anchored the Emery interior defense.
Sophomores Jodi Robertson and ShiAnne Allred played like veterans in this pressure situation. Both played with tenacity on offense and defense as each scored 9 points in the game.
Allred also pulled down 10 rebounds in the game. Meagan Pearson, the fifth Emery starter, has played very well as of late and continued that play in St. George. In the Dixie game, Meagan scored 3 points, had 5 rebounds and 3 steals.
Before the game, Coach Steve Gordon was apprehensive, “I’m nervous, this is probably worse than when I played. I know we are ready, I know we are the best team but �..” After the game Steve continued, “I can’t believe how good this feels, I am so happy for this group of girls, they have worked so hard, they deserve this. When I played, you just went out and played but as the coach you cannot do anything but encourage them. They listen so well and then do it. I am so happy to be associated with these girls.”
To get to the championship game, Emery had to defeat the second and third best teams in the state, which was no easy task because each thought they were better than Emery and deserved the title of best in the state.
Against Hurricane, Emery trailed a lot of the game. They trailed by 2 at the end of the first quarter, were tied at the half, and trailed by 4 at the end of the third quarter before winning the game in the last period as they outscored the Tigers 21-12.
| Jodi Robertson takes the ball around the corner while the Wasatch player tries to reach in for the ball. |
Allred led the team with 8 points in the quarter, with Fehlberg kicking in 6 points and Robertson 5 points. In this game, Emery insisted on throwing the ball away more than they ever had previously but overcame that bad habit in getting the victory.
Robertson led the team in this game with 17 points as she made 6 of 10 shots including 3 of 5 from behind the three-point line. She also had 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Fehlberg had 14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Allred also finished in double figures with 12 points, 9 rebounds and 2 steals. Rasmussen had 6 points, 6 rebounds and an assist. Pearson finished with 3 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Frankie Komar also had 2 points.
Against Wasatch, Emery used a good second quarter to open up a lead and then held on for the win. After leading 13-12 after the first period, Emery won the second quarter 11-3 to lead 24-15 and then held on. This was a game that you wondered if any Emery players would still be playing because of fouls. Allred and Rasmussen both fouled out of the game, Robertson had 4 fouls and Fehlberg had picked up 3 fouls in the first half to put Emery in a tentative position.
Pearson led the team in scoring with 12 points, also had 6 rebounds and led the team with 3 steals. Rasmussen, Allred and Fehlberg all finished with 9 points. Rachel and ShiAnne each had 5 rebounds and an assist. Pearson and Rasmussen each had a block. Fehlberg also had a block along with 3 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal. Robertson had 3 points and Frankie Komar and Caitlin Hansen each scored 2 points off the bench.
Emery finished the season with a 22-3 record and went 8-0 in region play. Although Emery will sorely miss Camille and Rachel, Emery will have four of the top six players back next year to continue this winning tradition. In addition, Emery had a very good JV team and sophomore team this season with several good freshmen.