Spartan teams finish first half of region play

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

Spartan girls team
Last week the Emery High Lady Spartans finished the first half of the region season with a perfect 5-0 record as they administered a 53-21 defeat to Wasatch Academy after they had already traveled to Moab and defeated Grand High by the score of 64-51. And then the season suffered a setback when the Spartan team played Carbon for the second time this season and this time the Lady Dinos avenged their earlier loss with a thrashing of the visiting Spartan team by the score of 52-36.
The Dinos outscored Emery in the first quarter by a score of 19-10 and then unlike prior games when Emery has responded well to being down, this time Emery lost every quarter. The Lady Spartan starters only scored 16 points in the game as the starters had a rough time getting anything going against the aggressive defense being played by the Lady Dinos. Hannah Dyer scored 8, Ashlynn Allred scored 7 and Kelsie Cox scored 1, as Emery was unable to pierce the Dino defense.
Sophomore Camrey Johnson was the bright spot for the Spartans as she came off the bench, shot the ball without fear and without hesitation and scored 15 points to lead the team in scoring but Camrey also led the team with 2 rebounds and 3 steals. That is a problem when the leading rebounder in the books has only two rebounds. Camrey was 6 for 7 from the field for shooting while the rest of the team was 4 for 17. Emery also had 17 turnovers in the game.
The only other Spartans two score in the game were Emily Olsen with 4 points and Patyn Jeffs with 1 point. Emery was outscored 10-9 in the second quarter, 10-7 in the third and 13-10 in the final period.
But fortunately the Carbon game is a non-region game and really only counts as a reminder to the players to keep working hard to get to the playoffs in great shape.
Against Grand, Emery outscored their opponent 23-3 in the first quarter and then cruised easily to the region road win. Bailey Rasmussen scored 18 points in the paint in the game to pace the team to the win. Rasmussen also pulled down 12 rebounds to lead the team.
Also scoring in this game were Dyer with 15 points, Ashton Bell, Cassidy Labrum and Kambrie Hinkins with 5 points each, Ashlynn Allred and Emily Olsen with 4 points each, Patyn Jeffs with 3 points and Lexie Huntington with 2 points. Emery was outscored 48-41 over the final three periods.
Against Wasatch Academy, Emery easily won every quarter in cruising to the all-too-easy region victory. The first period was won 9-2, the second quarter was won 12-5, the third quarter was won 16-8 and the final period was won 16-6. Emery had 10 different players score in the game led by Allred’s 14 points. Allred is recovering from an ankle injury.
Also scoring in the game were Rasmussen with 9 points, Dyer with 6 points, Jeffs and Labrum scored 5 points, Johnson and Cox with 4 points each and Olsen, Huntington and Hinkins with 2 points each. Emery has a single game this week as the team will travel to San Juan Thursday afternoon and evening to play the Broncos.
Spartan boys team
Last week, the Emery High Spartan boys basketball team traveled to Mount Pleasant to face the number one ranked Wasatch Academy. They returned home with an 82-39 shellacking by the host team. One can see from the score why Wasatch Academy is favored to repeat as the 2-A state champion again this season.
But to do justice to this story, we need to look at who Wasatch Academy really is. The school is more than 100 years old and is actually a college preparatory school that has turned out some great alumni.
The school has between 300-400 hundred students that pay upwards of $50,000 annually to attend this school. The school does a good job of educating the students that go to the school and the school has students from many foreign countries plus they come from over half of the states of this country. This is a boarding school.
Unlike public schools, this school and other private schools in the state can and do recruit students to come to this particular school and to bring their talents there to enhance the school. Emery and other rural schools play the students that live there now and have probably lived their entire lives in this school districtd. Wasatch Academy goes out into the world and brings back enough players to stock their program.
Last week Emery valiantly played the host team but the game was over shortly after it started. The Spartans were down 15-4 after the first quarter and 43-14 at the half. The second half was just a little better but really not much as Emery struggled and Wasatch Academy pretty much did whatever they wanted to do.
Senior Gavin McDermott was the lone bright spot statistically as he scored around 21 points and pulled down double digit rebounds.
Wasatch Academy had four starters score in double figures and the same four also pulled down double digit rebounds. Here are the official stats for Wasatch. Alex Baptist with 14 points and 11 rebounds, Cody John with 21 points and 18 rebounds, Koby McEwen with 19 points and 13 rebounds and finally Geno Luzcendo with 10 points, 18 rebounds, 8 assists and 9 steals.
Wasatch Academy has beaten two of the top five 4-A schools in this state this year plus the best 3-A team in the state. They are a great team and after last week’s play shows, they will be hard to handle in the 2-A ranks.
Emery will continue region play this week with games at home against Grand on Wednesday and against San Juan on Friday.