| Alexis Swasey jumps high for the rebound against the Cowboys. |
The Emery High Lady Spartans opened the 2005-2006 basketball season with a convincing 43-23 win over Grantsville in the Spartan Center and the number one ranking in 3-A girls basketball. The ranking was in The Salt Lake Tribune.
With Emery returning the entire top starting line-up plus five other players that saw lots of action, opponents and the media all saw this Emery squad as the team to beat for this season’s championship.
The Tribune thought that Emery would be too tough because of the play of Camille Fehlberg and Natalee Hanson. Now we will not know. Natalee’s senior season was over before it ever began when she tore her knee up in practice. Surgery is down the line in several weeks when the swelling goes down.
In the season opener, Emery started the game with their pressure defense and fast paced offense working to perfection. The first quarter was all Emery. They really looked good in this period as they outscored the Lady Cowboys 16-0. Camille led the way with 7 points as she ran the team at the point. Also having a basket in the period were Ashley Hansen, Alexis Swasey, Tahna Merrell and Meagan Pearson.
And then to remind us that it was the opening game, Emery stopped doing all the things that got them the lead. Grantsville scored the first seven points as they outscored Emery 14-6 in the period to trail at the half 22-14.
In the words of Coach Steve Gordon “the second quarter was terrible for us. I didn’t recognize what they were trying to do out there.” Camille had four more points and Ashley added another basket.
Coach Gordon’s halftime speech must have worked because the Spartans came out in the third quarter and limited Grantsville to two free throws made in four attempts. Camille had four more points and Callie Seeley, Shala Pitchforth and Rachel Rasmussen each had a basket.
Emery played a good final period as they outscored their opponent 11-7. Alexis had seven points in the period and Meagan had the other four. Emery played with in their game plan in the second half as they won going away.
Coach Gordon talked about the game with his players after, “We got a win. We were kind of sloppy at times but we got a win. Defense was there tonight, you really got after it.”
Camille led the way with 15 points and Alexis had 10 points. Camille was nine for nine at the free throw line while the rest of the team was five for 12.
The junior varsity team lost their opener 38-30. They were done in by a bad third quarter as they were outscored 13-3. They also were only six for 16 at the free throw line.
Scoring for the JV team was Haylie Hansen and Shalae Cox with three points, Caitlin Hansen with a basket, Meagan Pearson with five points, Rachel Rasmussen with seven points and Jodie Lundell with 10 points.
The sophomore team blew away their competition as they won 52-20. They outscored the Cowboys 8-2 in the first period, 14-2 in the second period and 14-4 in the third period before they coasted a little in the final period as they outscored them 16-12.
Only seven girls dress for the sophomore team and they all scored in this win. Jodi Robertson led the team with 18 points. ShiAnne Allred was next with 10 points. Frankie Komar, Rebekah Bott and Caitlin Hansen all had six points. Billie Jean Reed had four points and Madison Jensen had two points to complete the scoring. Jodi, ShiAnne and Frankie are all freshmen.
Natalee will be missed on the floor because she brought a little pizazz and a lot of spunk to this team. The team though should do well and should still be considered the favorite to win it all. The team is talented and deep.
The Spartans are on the road now for seven straight games before they come home Dec. 21 to play Uintah.