| David Justice tries to get above the Juan Diego defenders. |
The two Emery High Spartan basketball teams opened region play last week but only the Lady Spartans came away with a victory. On Thursday night in Draper, the girls won convincingly 65-42. On Friday, at home in the Spartan Center, the boys suffered a last quarter defeat 56-39.
Now I know and you are probably thinking, that this score does not sound like a last quarter defeat but I am telling you that is the truth. The game started out even steven, with each team playing sloppily, with each team playing a game that neither seemed to want to win but Juan Diego forgot the script in that final period.
The two teams were tied at the end of the first quarter 9-9, they were tied at the end of the first half 16-16 and they were tied at the end of the third quarter 26-26. It seemed like this game was to go down to the wire before a victor came forth. But then came the fourth quarter.
That fourth quarter turned out to be real lopsided for the Soaring Eagles. After scoring only 26 points so far, they proceeded to hit everything they shot and scored 30 points in that period. While Juan Diego was scoring at will, Emery was not able to score at all until Dave Justice hit a 3-point shot with 3:47 left in the game. Emery still scored 13 points in the final quarter, which should have been enough to win after looking at the first three quarters.
Emery was only 2 for 16 from 3-point land in the game and a lot of the shots were far from going in the basket but because of good rebounding and pretty good defense Emery was still in the game going into that last quarter. Emery ended the game shooting just over 30 percent from the field and 60 percent from the free throw line.
Justice was the leading scorer with 19 points, 12 of those in the second half. Dave also had 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Karson Jensen finished the game with 8 points and 8 rebounds. Kyler Edgehouse finished with 7 points and 4 rebounds. Dempsey Jeffs had 3 points and Jordan Gee had 2 points for the Spartans.
Emery now goes on the road this week to Delta, who is having an unbelievably good year so far, on Wednesday and to Carbon on Friday, where anything has a tendency to happen.
The Lady Spartans, on the other hand, played a close first quarter and then exploded all over their opponent. Leading at the end of the first period 9-8, Emery dominated the next two quarters to put the game away early. They won the second quarter 21-9 and the third quarter 18-11 and then the reserves held their own in the final period 17-14.
The game was won with Emery’s pressure defense and with Emery’s superior rebounding ability. The other factor was Emery’s bench, the girls that do not start fit right in with the starters and the team loses nothing in going almost through another five girls. Depth is great to have and since most of the girls are young, they give Emery a bright future also.
Rachel Rasmussen led the team with 19 points despite facing a lot of double-teaming. Jodi Robertson scored 16 points, Jodie Lundell scored 11 points and Meagan Pearson scored 10 points as four Spartans ended in double figures. Frankie Komar added 6 points, ShiAnne Allred scored 2 points and Camille Fehlberg had a single point.
The Lady Spartans host Delta on Tuesday night and Carbon on Thursday night. Varsity game time is always around 7 p.m. and if you are going to the game anyway then you might as well go to the sophomore game at 3:30 p.m. and the JV game at 5:15 p.m. to see that the Spartans are well loaded for the future.