The Emery High Lady Spartans closed out their season doing exactly as expected and will now advance to the first round of the 3-A Utah State playoffs as one of the favorites for 2018 title. Emery finished the season with a 21-1 record, 11-1 in region play, ranked first in 3-A and ranked tenth in the state in any classification. Richfield finished the season with a 19-2 record, 11-1 in region, second in 3-A and thirteenth in the state. These two are expected to fight for the title.
Emery defeated Grand on Wednesday night 93-32 and then closed out the region season with a 75-49 win over San Juan. Against Grand, fourteen different Spartans scored in the game led by Kinlee Toomer and Lainee Jensen with 15 points each. Kinlee also had 11 assists and 5 steals in her abbreviated playing time. Megan Jensen finished with 14 points and Kacelyn Toomer scored 10 points as four of the five starters finished in double figures. The other starter, Bailey Huggard, scored just four points but she did pull down 13 rebounds.
The off-the-bench scoring was led by Morgan Hurdsman with 7 points and Tayden Nielson with 6 points. Hailey Jo Allred scored 5 points with Bethany Justice and Brileigh Curtis each scoring 4 points. Closing out the scoring were JoJo Peterson with 3 points, Hanna Huntington and Kiri Cook with 2 points each and Makeiya Bertuzzi with 1 point.
In the game against San Juan the Broncos kept the game closer than expected throughout but the Spartans still had a fairly easy game as they won all four quarters. Megan Jensen led the way with 30 points as the Spartans went inside time and time again to find baskets. Kinlee Toomer added 20 points as these two outscored the Broncos by themselves. Also scoring were Lainee with 13 points, Makeiya and Morgan with 3 points each and Bailey, Brileigh and Kacelyn with 2 points each.
After Emery and Richfield in the rankings of 3-A basketball came Grantsville with a 16-5 record and Juab and Union with 15-6 records. Grantsville and Morgan finished tied for first in region 13 with 7-1 records and Juab, Union and Carbon finished tied for first in region 14 with 10-2 region records. The Lady Spartans will play Providence Hall this Friday at Wasatch High School in Heber City in the first round of the playoffs. Providence Hall finished with a region record of 3-9.
Game time is 6:30 p.m. but could actually start just a little later since this will be the seventh game of the day.
Lady Spartans head to state tourney
The Lady Spartans fight for the ball against the Lady Devils. Drew Chowbay/Moab Times-Independent