Last week, the two Emery High basketball teams each played only a single game with the Emery boys hosting San Juan and the Emery girls traveling to San Juan. The home team won each game. The Emery boys won 53-43 while the girls lost 56-53.
As the two teams are now midway through their region 15 schedule this season, every game is important to the Emery squads as they fight for positioning in the upcoming 2-A state basketball tournament that starts three weeks from this Saturday.
Both teams are currently tied for second place in the region. The boys are tied with Richfield with a 2-2 record while the girls are tied with San Juan and South Sevier, also with a 2-2 record. The Emery boys will be at home for three of the final four region games while the Emery girls will be on the road for three of the final four games.
For the girls, Richfield should win region as they are 4-0 and currently ranked as the best team in 2-A play with a 15-1 record. Grand is probably out as they have lost four straight region games and had trouble scoring points in any of them. It will be a toss up for the other three spots although Emery is in good position to finish second if their field goal shooting will stay up.
For the boys, South Sevier should win the region as they also are currently 4-0 and ranked as the best team in 2-A on the boys side with a 16-1 record. San Juan and Grand both have 1-3 records. Emery is in a great position to finish second in the region with those three home games. Emery has been scrappy all season and should remain so throughout the rest of the season.
At the Spartan Center last Saturday afternoon, the Spartan boys used a good third quarter to break open a close game. Emery had led 14-12 after the first quarter and 25-23 at the half. In the third quarter, Emery out scored the Broncos 15-6 to lead 40-29 going into the final period. San Juan only managed to gain a single point on Emery in that final period and Emery had the win.
Dallon Cologie and Dawson Jensen each scored 11 points in the game to pace Emery. With Brendon Jorgensen and Jordan Cox each scoring nine points and Logan Tuttle scoring eight points, one can see that it was a balanced Emery attack that led them to the win. Curtis Mason scored three points and Bailey Faimalo scored two points in the win for Emery.
For the girls, the game came down to two things, lack of a good shooting percentage and foul trouble. Emery, while shooting 62 percent from the free throw line, only managed to shoot 23 percent from 2-point range in the close game. After shooting slightly better from behind the 3-point arc, Emery finished the game shooting 25 percent from the field anywhere. As we have seen quite often this season, when the shooting percentage is below 30, Emery loses. Emery made only 12 baskets in the game but went 21 for 34 at the free throw line while San Juan only went 15 for 31 at the line.
On top of the shooting woes, Emery lost their three leaders to foul trouble. Kim Oldroyd, the leading rebounder for the season, and Jeridi Price and Blayr Jeffs, the two leading scorers for the season, all fouled out of the game.
San Juan outscored Emery 15-9 the first quarter, 14-12 the second quarter and led 29-22 at the half. Emery won the third period 13-9 to trim the lead to three but each team scored 18 points in the final period as the Broncos won the game.
Jeffs scored 13 points in the game while Price scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Sophomore Hannah Dyer came off the bench and scored nine points and pulled down seven rebounds as she played well in her time on the floor. Kelsie Cox and Laurel Roundy each scored eight points with Oldroyd scoring two points and Ashlynn Allred scoring one point. Roundy had six rebounds while Cox led the team with four steals.
The Emery boys will play a non-region game on Wednesday when they travel to Parowan. Parowan is currently in second place in their region but only have a 3-13 record this season. Emery will then host South Sevier on Friday night and will do their darndest to shut down the highflying Rams.
The Emery girls only play a single game this week and will travel to Monroe on Thursday night for a key region game as the Lady Spartans hope to separate themselves from the field in region play.
Emery boys pick up win, girls lose at SJHS
"Blayr Jeffs shoots the ball in an earlier game. She was the leading scorer at San Juan."