Last week was an interesting one for the Emery High Spartan basketball team as they were brilliant at times and struggled mightily at other times but in the end, the boys won two more games in this young season and are now 3-0 as they enter the third week of this season. Emery traveled to Blanding on Wednesday and came back with a 62-61 victory and then on Friday night, Emery defeated Desert Hills 64-38 at home.
In the Desert Hills game, Emery was absolutely as good as any team could be in the opening period of that contest.
Coach Jeffs on his team, “We were down 11 points going into the fourth quarter at San Juan and things did not look good.
“We came back when we needed to and played with more energy and intensity in the final quarter. We have it sometimes but we need it all the time. We had it against Desert Hills in the first quarter the other night but then it just went away. We are working on having it all the time,” said Jeffs.
Emery led the first quarter against the Broncos but neither team really could score early in this game.
Emery led 10-7 after the first quarter. Emery was outscored both of the next quarters before finally breaking out of the doldrums in the final period and played well enough to get the win against a good San Juan team.
Emery was led in scoring by Nevin Jensen as he scored 18 points in the game, 16 of those in the second half. Ty Benson was the second leading scorer in the game with 12 points, all of those in the second half. TJ Furner also finished in double figures with 10 points.
Others scoring in the game were Tanner Procarione with nine points, Mark Guymon with eight points and Derek Tuttle with four points. Tuttle led the team with eight rebounds. Procarione finished with a black eye.
Desert Hills came to town looking for revenge for a close loss last season at home but the Spartans were more than up to the challenge and took the easy win or so it seemed that it was an easy one.
When just looking at the box score Emery went out fast and never looked back but that was not really what happened.
In the first quarter of this game, Emery could do no wrong. Emery outscored the Thunder 29-6, as everything Emery did was perfect but almost just as quickly as it came, it all went away.
After owning a 23-point lead, Emery went cold and could do nothing right. Emery only scored four points in that second period while Desert Hills poured in 18 and just like that it was a game again at 33-24 at the half.
A lackluster third quarter saw Emery add to their lead as they won the period 10-5, as now the Thunder could also do no right.
The final period saw Emery come back to life, win the period 21-9, and get the 26-point margin of victory.
Derek Tuttle played the best game of his high school career as he took charge and made sure Emery was the winner. Derek scored 15 points and he and Tanner Procarione finished with 15 points each. Tuttle also finished with team high 12 rebounds. Tanner was equally impressive as he pulled down nine rebounds.
Nevin Jensen scored eight points in this game but the coaching staff thought that he played absolutely brilliant at times. Jensen also added 10 assists in the game and a pair of rebounds.
Guymon finished with only three points but played good defense and had five rebounds and three assists as he handled the ball some of time. Furner had four points, seven rebounds, an assist and two blocked shots.
Emery goes to Kanab this Wednesday and then to Carbon this Friday night.
Spartans dodge Broncos: roll over Thunder
"Tanner Procarione plays defense for the Spartans."