After having lived on the edge the past couple of games in grabbing a pair of region wins over North Sevier and San Juan, the Spartans had no second half magic left as they traveled to South Sevier and came away with their first region loss of the season by the score of 60-44. Emery had defeated North Sevier earlier in the week by the score of 64-54 after trailing 30-19 at the half.
At Salina, Emery shot seven for 26 in the first half including going 0 for 5 from behind the three-point line. Senior center Kevin Butler scored 10 points in the half to lead the team.
Tyson Roper went hard to the basket midway through the third quarter making a lay-up and narrowed the gap to 32-29 as Emery had opened up the period on a 10-2 run. The score was 41-40 for North Sevier in the closing seconds of the period and the Wolves had the ball. North Sevier got the ball inside and Butler recorded a block and the ball ended up in Bowdie Jacobsen’s hands. Just before the buzzer sounded and from half court, Jacobsen launched a shot that went in and Emery led for the first time at 43-41.
Emery won the fourth quarter 21-13 to secure the win over the Wolves. Roper scored 16 second half points to pace the team in the half and also the game as he finished with 18 points. Roper also finished with 7 rebounds in the game. Also scoring in double figures were Dillon Wilstead with 14 points, Butler with 12 points and Jacobsen with 10 points. Wilstead finished the game with 8 assists while Kevin also had 9 blocked shots in the game and 8 rebounds.
Also scoring were Kolton Butler with 5 points, Tai Justice with 3 points and Koby Butler with 2 points. Emery outrebounded the Wolves by nine in the game.
At South Sevier, the Rams won the first quarter 11-10 and both teams scored 14 points in the second quarter as they played a fairly even game to this point. Emery had a tough time in the second half getting the ball to go through the hoop and gradually fell further and further behind and there appeared to be nothing that could be done about it by the Spartans. The Rams won the third quarter 14-8 and the final quarter 21-12 to secure the win.
Wilstead finished in double figures with 11 points and Tai Justice and Bowdie Jacobsen each scored 9 points in the game. Justice had 3 three-pointers. Also scoring were Roper with 7 points, Kevin Butler with 6 points and Koby Butler with 2 points. Emery will host Grand High on Wednesday and then will travel to Salina for a rematch on Friday night with North Sevier.
Spartans win at home against North Sevier
"Cutline"