| Emery’s Vic Rosen receives a pass from Dave Justice in the game against Pine View. |
The Emery Spartans have now won six straight games as they won two close ones at home last week. On Thursday the Hurricane Tigers came to town with only a single loss before the Emery Spartans sent them packing with a 78-75 win. Pine View came to the Spartan Center on Friday night and Emery sent them on their way with a 58-57 loss.
Emery won the two games differently. Against Hurricane, they played from behind the whole night before finally taking a lead in the last three minutes of the game and securing the win. Against Pine View, Emery took a first quarter lead, lead through the second and third quarters and then withstood a Panther comeback to grab another victory.
On Thursday, Emery and Hurricane both scored 19 points in the opening quarter. Dave Justice scored 8 points to lead the Spartans while Darrin Winn added 6 points. Vic Rosen scored a single basket and Josh Eden hit a 3-pointer for the rest of the scoring in that first period. Both teams in the period played more offense than defense.
The next two periods saw the Tigers take the lead, as they couldn’t seem to miss much on the offensive end. At the end of the third period, Hurricane led 62-51 and it seemed that Emery was going down to defeat. It just looked like one of those days when everything was going right for your opponent and you might as well call it a day. But Emery failed to get the message and staged a great final period comeback.
Emery scored the first 6 points of the quarter to get within five and then continued to tear up the Tiger defense while shutting down the Tiger offense. Emery went on a 16-3 run to take the lead with less than three minutes to go in the game. The score was 67-65 before Hurricane hit a three-point shot to regrab the lead. Hurricane missed free throws to start the period to aid the Spartans in their quest for the lead.
Emery was then down 68-70 before Emery grabbed the lead at 74-72 with 46 seconds left. Emery made free throws and held the Tigers to a single basket in the last minute to secure the victory.
Justice and Winn each scored 9 points in the final period to lead the Spartans to the win. Winn finished the game with 25 points, 10 rebounds and a block. Justice finished the game also with 25 points and also had 11 assists.
Rosen finished with 6 points and 10 rebounds, Eden had 8 points, Dempsey Jeffs had 5 points and Kyler Edgehouse had 9 points in his play off the bench. Emery had 10 steals in the game and 16 turnovers.
Against the Panthers, Emery led 17-14 after the first quarter, 33-22 at the half and 44-37 at the end of the third quarter.
Justice and Winn again led the team in scoring as Dave had 16 points and Darrin had 15 points. Jeffs hit three 3-pointers on his way to 11 points, Edgehouse scored 7 points, Eden scored 5 points and Rosen scored 4 points.
Emery has now worked their way into the rankings of the two Salt Lake papers, as they have become an exciting team to watch. Emery is on the road Tuesday night in St. George facing a good Dixie squad and will be home Thursday night hosting Wasatch at the Spartan Center.