Emery Spartans defeat Hawks in tough game; drop game at Manti

The North Sanpete Hawks would not go away as they kept going on scoring runs to keep the Spartans running up until the last minute of the game.
The Spartans prevailed at home on Wednesday evening as they sent the Hawks home with a 76-61 defeat. In the fourth quarter the Hawks came back to within six but the Spartans held them off to get the win.
Going into last week’s basketball games the Emery High boys’ team knew they would have to be at their best to win a pair of region games. Emery was facing Manti on the road and North Sanpete at home, two teams that had winning region records and overall winning records for the season.
Emery managed to split the games, defeating North Sanpete in Castle Dale by the score of 76-61 as they built a first quarter lead and then managed to maintain that lead throughout the game and then losing at Manti by the score of 74-50 as Emery never really challenged the winners for the lead.
At Manti, Emery fell behind 21-12 in the first quarter, lost the second period 14-8, tied the third quarter 10-10 and then lost the final period 29-20.  Manti currently has a 3-1 region record and an overall 11-3 record to be sitting in a tie for first in region 15 play with South Sevier.
Grand High is in third place with a 3-2 region record and an 11-3 season record while Emery and North Sanpete are tied for fourth at 2-2 in the region.  North Sanpete’s season record is 10-4 while the Spartans are 8-5.
Richfield and San Juan each have just a single region victory and are in sixth and seventh place respectively.
Kyson Stilson led the effort against Manti with 25 points and Easton Gordon scored 16 points.  Brax Jensen scored 6, Cade Brazier scored 2 and Kyler Wilstead closed out the Spartan scoring with 1 point.
At home Emery played well throughout the game as they built their lead. Emery led 17-9 after the first quarter, 31-18 at the half, 47-32 after three and then both teams scored 29 points in the final period to get to the final score.
Stilson again led the Spartans offensively as he scored 23 points and also had 4 assists, 8 rebounds and a steal.  Tyler Butler scored 20 points as he connected on six 3-pointers in the game and Butler also had 6 rebounds and an assist.  Gordon scored 15 points and had 7 rebounds while Jensen scored 9 points, had 5 rebounds and 6 assists.  Brazier scored 5 and Wilstead scored 4.
All five Emery starters are currently averaging in double figures for the season with Stilson scoring at a 15.5 points per game average and is the ninth leading scorer in 3-A ball.  Stilson is 11th in rebounding and fifth in assists.  Butler averages 13.5 points per game with Brazier and Gordon at 11.8 points per game and Jensen at 10.0 points per game. Brax is first in 3-A basketball with a 5.1 assist per game average.
Emery will travel to Grand this Wednesday night and then will face San Juan at home this Friday in the Spartan Center.
This week will conclude the first half of region play and Emery needs two wins to stay in the race for a region title.