Last week, the two Emery High basketball teams each played just a single game. The Emery Lady Spartans hosted South Sevier on Thursday night and did what they needed to do to secure the win as they defeated the Rams 51-38. The Emery boys traveled to the home of the preseason favorite to win a third straight state title and put up a good battle but lost in the end 85-72. Both Emery teams are still ranked second in the region.
On the road, the boy’s team put up a good fight for nearly three quarters before the Rams were able to creep to a double-digit victory. South Sevier led Emery 16-15 after the first quarter and after Emery won the second quarter 21-20, the two teams were tied at the half 36-36. The two teams battled equally throughout the third quarter until the Rams snuck away at the end to win the period 24-18. South Sevier then won the final quarter 25-18 to secure the win and stay undefeated in region action and in 2-A play.
Starting guards Bailey Faimalo and Dillon Wilstead powered the team in the battle by scoring 18 points and 19 points respectively. Two other players joined those two in double figure scoring in this high scoring ball game. Dawson Jensen scored 11 points and Spencer Labrum scored 10 points. The other Emery starter, Brendon Jorgensen finished right behind with 9 points.
Emery shot the ball pretty well all night long as they made 61 percent of their two point shots and 34 percent of their three-point shots. Unfortunately, South Sevier’s top two players shot the ball maybe a little bit better. 2-A’s top player Race Parsons finished the night with 42 points and hit 6 three-point shots in the game. The Ram’s Austin Clark scored 26 points as the two players nearly outscored Emery on the night as they combined for 68 points.
Faimalo led the team with 9 assists and hauled down 6 rebounds. Jorgenson led the team with 3 steals and 7 rebounds and also had 3 assists. David Dyer scored 3 points and Corbin Barnett scored 2 points to be the only other Spartans in the scoring column.
If you look at the final score of the game, you could assume that the Lady Spartans had an easy time in defeating the Rams. This would be a mistake.
Emery outscored South Sevier 13-1 in the first quarter and took their lead to 20-3 midway through the second quarter. This is when the Spartans took on a different personality. Midway through the third quarter the score was 24-23 Emery as South Sevier outscored the Spartans 20 to 4 over about an eight minute period in the second and third periods. Emery assisted their opponent by turning over the ball eight straight times in the second quarter and opened the third quarter with nine straight turnovers. These turnovers were the result of physical play by the Rams and a little bit of carelessness by the Spartans.
But fortunately for Spartans fans, the team figured things out in the fourth quarter, got their act together and won the period 21-11 and the ball game by 13. Emery led 42-36 when they outscored the Rams 9-3 over the final minutes to secure the win.
Senior Jeridi Price had a big fourth quarter when Emery needed some one to lead the team by scoring 9 points in the period on her way to scoring 19 points for the game.
Ashlynn Allred was the only other Spartan in double figure with 13 points. Bailey Rasmussen, Kelsie Cox and Hannah Dyer all scored 5 points and Shelby Allred scored 3 points in the game.
The two Emery teams each play a single game this week. The Lady Spartans host the top-ranked Richfield Wildcats on Thursday night and the boys travel to Richfield on Friday night.
Emery girls win at home, Emery boys go down on the road
"Bailey Faimalo puts up a shot. "