| Gatlan Huntington heads for the hoop. |
After falling behind in both region basketball games last week, the Spartans of Emery High finished with a flurry but neither time were they able to turn that into a win. After scoring only 32 points in the first three quarters against Juan Diego, Emery scored 24 in the fourth quarter but still lost the game 65-56.
And then almost identically the same thing happened against Delta. Emery only scored 19 points in the first three periods but then scored 25 points in that final period but still lost the game 61-44.
Both games last week followed the same pattern. Emery led after the first period in each game as the Spartans played solid defense and kept their opponent at bay. They led 9-8 against Delta and 7-5 against Jan Diego.
Emery went down in both second quarters. Against Juan Diego, Emery trailed 19-18 at the end of the period to still be close but against the second ranked Rabbits, Emery only scored 4 points while allowing 16 to put themselves in a hole against a talented team.
The third quarter of each game saw the Emery opponent stretch their lead as the Spartans again were outscored. At Juan Diego, Emery lost the period 20-14 and at home against Delta, Emery lost the period 11-6. Emery actually lost both of the fourth quarters when they scored all those points as they fouled to get into the game and their opponents actually sank free throws.
After the Delta game, Coach Jeffs talked about shooting percentages for the night, “We have got to shoot the ball better, I thought that might be the strength of this team.” For the Delta game, Emery shot 38 percent from the field and 23 percent behind the 3-point strip. Coach Jeffs did not think that was satisfactory for this team.
Emery was 13 for 34 from the field and 5 for 21 from behind the line. Emery did shoot 75 percent from the free throw line but that is deceptive because Emery only shot 4 free throws in the Delta game. Those free throws came with 1:46 left in the fourth quarter. For awhile, it appeared that Emery would shoot no free throws in the game.
| Nevin Jensen goes up strong against the Delta Rabbit. |
Against Juan Diego, Emery did not shoot the ball much better. From the free throw line, Emery was only 3 for 6 in the first half and 17 for 28 in the second half.
Nevin Jensen was the offensive star in both games. Nevin finished with 24 points against Juan Diego and 22 points against Delta. He had strong fourth quarter performance in each game. Against the Eagles, he scored 14 second half points and against the Rabbits, he scored 15 second half points. Nevin is only a sophomore.
Karson Jensen had a strong rebounding game against the Eagles. He finished with 16 for the night as he could be seen time and again soaring high.
Also scoring against Juan Diego were Dempsey Jeffs with 13 points, Karson Jensen with 12 points, Jordan Gee with 7 points and Brett Mecham with a point.
Against Delta, Jeffs finished with 10 points while Gee, Karson and Cameron Hansen each finished with 4 points.
The Spartans will continue looking for their first region win this week when they host Carbon on Wednesday and travel to North Sanpete on Friday.