Lady Spartans beat Beaver/Duchesne ready for region

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

The Emery High Lady Spartans finished their preseason last week with a pair of wins to even their season record at 5-5 and will now commence the region 15 season with games this week against Grand in Moab on Tuesday and at home against North Sevier on Thursday. Emery traveled to Beaver and defeated the host team 39-31 as they won the fourth quarter 13-7. On Friday night, Emery hosted a good Duchesne team and defeated the visitors 51-35.
One might look at the Duchesne score and arrive at the conclusion that this was an easy win against a 1-A school but that conclusion would be wrong. Duchesne came into the game with a 10-2 season record with wins over Union, Manti and South Summit.
Emery fell behind quickly as the game started as they trailed 6-3 until CJ Johnson hit her second three-pointer of the game to tie the score at 6 each. Duchesne hit a pair of free throws to recapture the lead at 8-6 but the rest of the quarter belonged to Emery as they scored in six of their final seven possessions of the period to lead 19-8 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter was a period of runs, just as the close of the first quarter was. Emery outscored Duchesne 6-0 to begin the period to lead 25-8 but the Eagles then went on a 14-0 run of their own to narrow the deficit to 25-22. Emery closed the period out by scoring the final four points and led 29-22 at the half. Emery was four of 17 from the field in the quarter while duchesne was four of five. Duchesne had opened the second quarter with eight straight turnovers and finished the period with 11.
Emery added to their lead in the third quarter as they outscored the Eagles 12-7 and then kept that lead in the final period as they won the quarter 10-6.
Freshman Megan Jensen led the team with 13 points and pulled down 8 rebounds to also lead in that category. Jensen also had 3 steals to tie with Kacelyn Toomer, another freshman. Jensen finished the game with a dozen blocked shots or so as she had six in a row in the second half as the Eagles kept trying to go inside but to no avail.
Also scoring were Johnson with 10 points, Bailey Huggard with 6 points, Abbie Huntington and Toomer with 5 points each, Bayler Griffin and Lainee Jensen with 4 points each and Jessica Olsen and Aniston Curtis with 2 points each. Lainee also had 5 rebounds as did Curtis.
Against Beaver, Emery trailed 10-9 at the end of the first quarter, led 17-14 at the half and 27-24 after three quarters and then put the game away in the final period. Kacelyn Toomer was the leading scorer with 9 points and Griffin followed with 8 points. Megan Jensen and Jessica Olsen each scored 5 points and Johnson and Curtis each scored 4 points. Lainee and Kinlee Toomer each scored 2 points. Megan led the team with 8 rebounds and Lainee was second with 4 while Griffin led the team with 4 assists and 3 steals.