| Dempsey Jeffs puts up a shot against Carbon. |
There have been times this season when the Emery High Spartans have had their opportunities to win but didn’t. With a little luck, the Spartans season record right now would have been better had they simply played all 32 minutes of a game instead of disappearing at times that allowed their opponents to take advantage. But last Friday night in Mt. Pleasant against the Hawks of North Sanpete, Emery finished the game, got the win and finished third in region 8.
Against the Hawks, Emery played all 32 minutes and came home victorious 68-60. Emery led by 1 point after the first quarter and by that same 1 point at the half. In the third quarter, Emery broke open a close game to lead by nine points at the end of the third. Against the Hawks, a team that had defeated Emery earlier in the year in Castle Dale, Emery maintained their composure and basketball skills and tonight got the victory.
This was a game marked by fouls, a lot of fouls and not only fouls by Emery. In this game, North Sanpete joined the Spartans in fouling and the two teams shot 70 free throws. This made for a long game. Emery was 30 of 40 at the free throw line while the Hawks were 20 of 30.
With the win, Emery finished third in region play behind Juan Diego and Delta and ahead of Carbon. With the loss, North Sanpete gets left out of state ball games this season. Emery now will travel to Logan this Friday and play the Grizzlies for the right to advance to the 3-A State tournament in St. George next week. Logan finished the season at 17-3 while Emery finished the season at 10-10 with Monday’s game against Uintah still to go in the total. That game was scheduled as a warm up to the play-in game. While Emery will be the underdog, Emery can win the game if they will finish it.
Dave Justice led the team in scoring with 35 points including making free throw after free throw in the final quarter. Dempsey Jeffs finished with 18 points but fouled out of the game in the fourth quarter. Skyler Jorgensen scored 8 points, Jordan Gee scored 6 points and Kyler Edgehouse scored 1 point.