Emery teams have their ups and downs on the court

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports writer

With a pair of convincing region wins for the Emery High Lady Spartans against North Sanpete and Richfield, the Emery ladies solidified their position in region 12 basketball. Emery, after the completion of the first half of region play, is currently in second place in the region and ranked number five in the state by the Deseret News.
Looking at region 12 so far this season, the Delta Rabbits finished the first half of the region season 5-0 and also are undefeated for the season. The Rabbits are currently ranked number one by the Deseret News and have had the position for most the season. Richfield is third at 3-2, Juab is fourth at 2-3, North Sanpete is fifth at 1-4 and Manti is 0-5. Emery would like to finish region play with no more losses but region 12 is a very tough region this season. Richfield is a two-time defending state champion and Emery will also have to travel there in a couple of weeks. Emery is looking forward to Delta traveling to Castle Dale for the rematch.
Emery defeated Richfield by a score of 63-43 as Emery soundly defeated the Wildcats to take a firm hold on the region second place. Emery followed up with a 64-33 thrashing of North Sanpete.
Against Richfield, Emery started off slow as Emery did not lead in the game until Jeridi Price scored, was fouled and made the free throw with 2:27 left in the first quarter to lead 7-6. Price was in the game because Taylor Mann picked up two quick fouls and sat three minutes into the game. Emery then finished out the first quarter by scoring eight more points and led 15-6.
Jessica Murray hit a 3-pointer to start the second quarter and Emery led 18-6 as they were on a 14-0 run. Emery ended up leading at the half 29-17. Brooke Jensen, Blayr Jeffs and Mann all finished the first half with six points each.
The third quarter belonged to Taylor Mann as Emery came out determined to get the ball inside. Mann scored the first 12 points of the quarter as Richfield had no answer for the Emery post player. Tayler Jewkes and Shailee Stokes each hit a three to end the quarter with Emery now leading 47-32. Stokes’ shot went off the glass and into the basket as the buzzer sounded to end the period.
Emery won the final period 16-11 to easily win the game. Mann finished the game with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Jensen scored 10 points and pulled down 21 rebounds along with grabbing two steals. Jeffs scored 10 points, had six assists and four steals. Jewkes scored eight points, had seven rebounds and two assists. Murray scored three points, had five assists and two steals. Stokes scored four points and Price scored five points.
Emery completely dominated the Hawks right from the beginning in their win over the region rival. Emery didn’t score until Murray hit a free throw with a little over two minutes gone in the opening period but North Sanpete was only able to hit a basket in this period of time. Emery played suffocating defense to shut down the Hawks in the first half of the game. Emery won the first period 14-4 and the second period 14-2 to lead 28-6 at the half.
Mann scored seven points in the first quarter but rested most of the second quarter after she picked up two quick fouls. Jensen took over in the second quarter and 11 points in the period to help keep Emery rolling. Emery missed numerous lay-ups in the first half that probably prevented them from leading more by half time.
Mann returned in the third quarter and the team did a great job of getting Mann the ball and she did her part by scoring. Mann scored 14 points in the third quarter as Emery extended their lead to 47-16 after winning the period 19-10. The Emery second team played most of the fourth quarter with Whitney Roper leading the way with seven points in the period.
Mann finished the game with 23 points to lead the Spartans in the win. Mann also had nine rebounds along with five blocked shots. Jensen ended the game with 17 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots. Murray scored eight points, pulled down five rebounds and had four steals. Jewkes had three assists and four steals in the game. Jeffs scored five points, Kim Oldroyd scored two points, Stokes scored three points, Price scored one point, Roper had seven points and Kelsi Cox scored two points.