| Dave Justice plays in the Carbon game. |
The Emery High Spartan boys used solid defense in their 52-42 victory over the North Sanpete Hawks before traveling to Lehi and losing 54-32 last Friday night in a game that was not this far apart and in fact, Emery actually played pretty good defense in the loss.
Against Lehi, the problem for the Spartans was lack of offense not bad defense. They held Lehi to 7 points in the first quarter, to only 18 points at the half and to 30 points at the end of three periods. Emery just could not mount any offense in this game to go with their defensive effort.
In the first period, Emery only scored 2 points as Davey Justice made half his free throws. They scored 20 points in the second and third quarters but then managed only 3 points in the final quarter until the reserves came in and added 7 points in the last minute and a half.
In that first period, Emery had good looks at the basket and took good shots but got no points. In the fourth quarter, Emery had too many turnovers to go along with no scoring to aid in their final point spread. Lehi also left their starters in the game with only 35 seconds left and Emery had their sophomore team in the game.
Mike Blomquist and Justice each scored 9 points in the loss. Darrin Winn added 7 points. Bodee Marshall had 4 points and Brad Sitterud hit a 3-pointer.
This night was just Lehi’s night, as Emery did not rebound well against the taller Pioneers. On their smaller home court things just went well for Lehi.
Against North Sanpete, Emery again used solid defense to win this ball game. Emery led 14-10 at the end of the first quarter and 27-24 at the half. The Hawks tied the game in the third period 31-31 before Emery scored the last 6 points of the period.
Justice was the leading scorer in the game with 16 points and Winn added 15 points. Daniel Espino had 9 points, Joey Bernard had 5 points and Blomquist had 4 points. Brad Sitterud came off the bench and had a basket in second quarter and Josh Eden was 1-2 at the free throw line.
Head Coach Todd Jeffs talked about his team; “We have a chance if we play good defense, if we defend them. We are still learning and are staying energized and focused. The players work hard and are doing everything they are asked.”
When asked about the offense, he said, “We need to find away to score more points so that we don’t have to depend on our defense so much. We have no ego problems and are not selfish but we need to score more.”
The Spartans have only one game this week and that is Friday night as they host their rivals, the Carbon Dinos in the Spartan Center. Game time 7 p.m. but be early if you want a close parking space.