Emery boys/girls basketball breeze through first round

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

Just before tip-off last Friday night of the Emery High Lady Spartan basketball game at Orem High School as the Utah State 2-A playoffs began, I turned to those sitting around me, family to be exact, and simply said “Waterford doesn’t realize what is just about to happen.” They did in just a few minutes though as Emery quickly jumped to a 7-0 lead on their way to an easy win by the score of 71-20.
Emery, with the win, will now face Enterprise High this Thursday night at the Sevier Valley Center in Richfield at 9:10 pm. The win by Enterprise in a game against South Summit was one of the two upsets last Friday since Enterprise was a three seed and South Summit was a two seed. The other upset was San Juan with a win over Wasatch Academy by the score of 58-57 in overtime. The other biggest news out of the eight games played at Orem High was the knee injury suffered by the leading scorer of the North Summit team late in the game. She tore an ACL a year and a half ago just before volleyball began.
Emery won the first quarter 14-7 as Megan Jensen made three straight shots and scored 6 points. In the second quarter Morgan Hurdsman came off the bench and made three baskets including a pair of three-pointers and led the team to a 22-6 quarter and a 36-13 lead at the half. The third quarter was again all Emery as they won the period 21-3 with Kinlee Toomer leading the way with 5 points. The bench played most of the fourth quarter and things really didn’t change as the Spartans won the period 14-4 with Madisyn Alton scoring 5 points to be the leading scorer in the period.
Emery shot 56 percent from the field in the game with Megan Jensen leading the way with 18 points as she made nine shots out of 10 attempts. Hurdsman scored 11 points and she made four of five shots. Kacelyn Toomer made three of four shots and scored 8 points and Bailey Huggard also made three of four and she scored 6 points. Kinlee Toomer scored 5 points but she led the team with 9 assists and 2 steals. Lainee Jensen scored 11 points on four baskets made and Emery’s only made free throw of the game. Emery went one of four at the line.
Also scoring were Erin Hurst with 5 points, Alton with 5 points and Adri Childs with 2 points. Huggard led the team with 9 rebounds. Waterford had 17 turnovers through the first three quarters as they could not handle the Emery defense.
In Emery High Boys action as the game began the Rockwell Charter High School fans were loud and excited for their team that had qualified for the Utah State 2-A tournament in their first season in that classification. Unfortunately for the team and those fans the Rockwell Marshals were just about to face the Emery High Spartans in this first round match-up.
The game started evenly with both teams missing shots and having turnovers and with about the first quarter halfway done the score stood at 7-5 for the Spartans. Over the next seven minutes the game was all Emery as the Spartans scored the next 20 points and just like that the Spartans were about ready to dominate this game. Emery led 18-5 after the first quarter, got the lead up to 71-18 after three quarters and then won the game by the score of 93-34.
In this game the Spartans ran the floor in sync with each other as time after time were able to get off an uncontested shot and easily dominated this over-matched opponent. This was a team contest as five Spartans ended the game by scoring in double figures and two others were just a basket away. Zach Jorgensen was probably the player of the game as he sank five three-point shots, three of them in a row, and scored 17 points to lead the team.
Keaton McDermott came off the bench in the third quarter, scored eight quick points in the paint and finished the game with 14 points. Easton Gordon and Kolton Butler each scored 13 points. Easton and Kolton along with Jorgensen hit back to back to back three’s to start the third quarter and the team scored on 11 of 15 possessions in the quarter. Koby Butler scored 11 points in this game but his offensive style forced Rockwell to try and double and triple team him to keep him from scoring inside which then opened up the outside and his teammates made them pay for that mistake.
Bowdie Jacobsen scored 7 points and handed out numerous assists during his time on the floor.
Also scoring for Emery were Kyson Stilson with 4 points, Cody Wilstead with 8 points, Tyler Butler with 3 points and Cade Brazier with 3 points.
Emery will now face North Summit this Thursday in Richfield at the Sevier Valley Center as the 2-A tournament continues. Game time is set for 2:30 p.m. North Summit defeated Delta by the score of 70-44 in the game that followed Emery’s in Orem. The only upset Saturday was when third-seed South Summit defeated Enterprise 58-48 for the right to play Waterford Thursday. Waterford edged Manti 56-50 to advance. The other two games feature Summit Academy against Grand and South Sevier against Layton Christian Academy.
A concern for the Spartans is Kolton Butler who was holding his hand as he left the game in the fourth quarter. Reports are his ring finger on the right hand is broken. It is a clean break. Coach Jeffs hopes that Kolton will still be able to play with a splint. Kolton is always a great defender and a really good rebounder and shooter. The Spartans have basically been a six-man team throughout the season so good luck Kolton.