| Alexis Swasey, Shala Pitchforth and Ashley Hansen are among the top scorers for Emery. |
The Lady Spartans defeated North Sanpete and Lehi last week and now look forward to the rematch with the Carbon Dinos Thursday night. On Tuesday in Mt. Pleasant, the Spartans used a big second quarter to win the game 56-41. On Thursday at home, the Spartans used a big fourth quarter to win 49-32.
Natalee Hanson had 26 points, 14 of them in the final period, in the region win against the Hawks as the Spartans outscored their rival 15-8 in the second period to open up a close ball game and lead at the half 20-12.
Emery outscored their opponent 14-10 in the third period and 22-19 in the final period as Emery played good ball against the frantic Hawks. North Sanpete cut the lead to nine but then saw the Spartans go back up to double digits by shooting free throws well.
Also scoring in the game were Camille Fehlberg with 9 points, Ashley Hansen with 8 points, Shala Pitchforth with 7 points and Alexis Swasey with 6 points.
Against the Pioneers, Emery finally buried their pesky opponent with a 19-5 fourth quarter scoring spree as Lehi refused to go quietly. With the game still close, Meagan Pearson helped give the Spartans room as she came off the bench for 5 quick points in that final period.
Natalee had 18 points in the game as she has developed into the go to player for the Spartans. She had 7 points in each of the third and fourth quarters but made life interesting when she missed four free throws in a row. She was 6-11 for the game after being 10-12 in the North Sanpete game. She did make her last five.
Both teams played good defense in the first half as Lehi led 20-18 at the half. The Spartans were tentative on offense in that half of play. Head Coach Steve Gordon had this to say about his team, “We were sluggish in the first half tonight and have been for the last couple of games. We need to get over that. Turnovers are an issue too, we sometimes seem to panic when we don’t need to, and we are a better team than that.”
Emery came out of the locker room at the half and scored the first 8 points of the second half, as they were more aggressive. They allowed Lehi only 4 third quarter points and 8 fourth quarter points, as they played better.
Also scoring in the Lehi game were Alexis with 9 points, Shayla with 8 points, Camille with 7 points and Ashley with 2 points.
Looking forward to their Carbon rematch and to region play, Coach Gordon added, “We are sitting where we wanted to be, in either first or second in the region. We should have had Carbon last time and we think we can get them this time, it will be a good game.”
The Emery-Carbon game is Thursday night in Price at 7 p.m.