Last weekend, the Emery High boy’s basketball team hosted the 11th Annual Coal Country Classic and for the ninth time finished as the champion. This season Uintah High, Carbon High and Canyon View High came to town. Emery defeated Carbon 54-52 in the title game after having defeated Uintah on Friday night by a score of 62-52.
Nevin Jensen scored the game winning points against the Dinos with .4 seconds left in the game to give Emery the win and prevent the game from going into overtime. With 4.7 seconds left, Emery had the ball out of bounds at half court after a Carbon turnover.
The ball came into Nevin in the backcourt; he got around his man at the half court line and drove the middle of the lane. On the drive he let the ball go, it floated high off the glass backboard and fell into the basket to send the team and the fans off on a very merry victory celebration.
Nevin led Emery in both games as the leading scorer but just as importantly he played decent defense and guided the team well from the point guard position. On Friday, Nevin scored 22 points including 11 of 12 at the free throw line and on Saturday he scored 20 points.
Against the Utes, Emery took the early lead at 1-0 and actually never trailed in the game. The Spartans led after the first quarter 14-8, at the half 36-23 and 47-35 at the end of the third quarter.
Nevin had eight points in the first quarter with Gatlan Huntington adding four points. Nevin added six in the second period and Jason Giles scored five points. Tanner Procarione and Cameron Hansen each scored four points. In the third period, Hansen added seven more points with Nevin scoring four points.
Against Carbon, it was a dogfight throughout the entire ball game. Emery had the lead 10 times in the game with Carbon having the lead six times. The game was tied five times, the last being at 52 each as time ran down. Emery lead 15-11 at the end of the first quarter and 30-26 at the half as both teams scored 15 points in the second period. Carbon won the third period 17-12 to take a 43-42 lead after three periods.
Huntington led Emery in the first period with five points as the Dinos double-teamed the ball leaving Huntington open for the shot and he made the Dinos pay. Colton Barnett led the team in the second quarter with six points. In the third quarter, Nevin scored eight points to keep Emery in the game. Nevin, Procarione and Karson Jensen each scored four points in the final period.
The Emery defense held Carbon’s leading scorer from the night before to a single basket late in the game but the effort allowed Tyson Stevens to have a great game as he scored 25 points and was the leading scorer on the floor, making shots from everywhere.
Besides Nevin with 20 points on Saturday night, Karson Jensen scored nine points, Colton Barnett scored eight points, Huntington seven points, Procarione six points, Brett Mecham three points and Hansen a single point. Besides Nevin’s 22 points of Friday night, Hansen scored 11 points, Giles scored eight points with Huntington, Procarione and Barnett all scoring six points, Karson two points and Mecham one point.
In junior varsity play on Friday the boys beat Uintah by a score of 63-59 and on Saturday they lost to Carbon by four points.
The boys now host Desert Hills on Thursday night and San Juan on Friday night at home. Sophomore games start at 3:30 p.m., JV at 5:15 p.m. and varsity at 7 p.m.
Emery Spartans win Coal Country Classic
"Nevin Jensen puts up the ball for Emery."