| ShiAnne Allred fights for the offensive rebound. |
Emery High girls basketball coach Steve Gordon was a little concerned that he may have over scheduled his Lady Spartans at the start of this new basketball season. After playing the first week and looking at the second week, I probably would not disagree.
The Lady Spartans opened the season against North Sevier at home. North Sevier was last season’s 2-A state champion and favored again this season.
Emery then traveled two days later to Snow Canyon. Snow Canyon is ranked second in one preseason poll behind the Spartans. Emery then closed the week at Canyon View the next night. Canyon View defeated Emery last year in the championship game and is ranked first in the other preseason poll.
And this week could be worse. Emery may get a breather as they host Cedar City Tuesday night but then they go on three game road trip. Thursday night they play at Payson, currently in the top five of 4-A polls. On Friday and Saturday they play in Logan at the Mountain Crest tournament. Four games in five nights after playing three games in four nights, the girls certainly will be battle tested.
Against North Sevier, Emery was a little slow out of the gate as they allowed the Wolves to break to a 19-14 first quarter lead. First game jitters were evident for Emery. North Sevier had opened the season with a win over Canyon View a week earlier.
The rest of the game belonged to Emery though. Emery won the second period 18-7, the third period 20-10 and the last period 14-12 to win 66-48.
Camille Fehlberg finished the game with 19 points to lead the team. She had 13 points in the pivotal second quarter. Rachel Rasmussen finished with 18 points, including 12 in the third quarter. Meagan Pearson also was in double figures with 15 points. Other scorers were ShiAnne Allred with 8 points, Jodi Robertson with 4 points and Jodie Lundell and Shalae Cox with a single point each.
Coach Gordon talked about the first game, “Our free throw shooting was horrible, what were we 11 for 25. We wanted to shoot 75 percent for the season. Our goal was to win our first game and we did that. We had first game jitters but I thought we got better as the game progressed.”
Emery traveled to St. George and Snow Canyon. As with most games in the area, this again was a very physical ballgame as they always play rougher here than anywhere else. Emery won the game 62-56.
The game was tied at the half but Emery won each of the second half quarters to grab the victory. Lundell was the leading scorer in this game with 16 points. She had 12 points in the first quarter to spark Emery early. Camille finished with 14 points including 8 of 10 free throws in the final period. Robertson finished with 11 points. Pearson and Rasmussen had 7 points each, Frankie Komar had 3 points and Cox and Caitlin Hansen each finished with 2 points.
And then came Canyon View. Every once in a while, a team will play a game that is best forgotten. This was one of those. This was a game that certainly featured no scoring, no rebounding, no steals, no anything. Emery lost this game 38-24. After trailing 11-8, Emery was unable to score for half the game. Two free throws by Fehlberg in the second quarter and a 3-point basket by Fehlberg in the third quarter was all there was. It was like a lid was on the basket, nothing would go in. Emery did win the final period 11-7.
Three Spartans scored in this game, Fehlberg with 11 points, Lundell with 8 points and Rasmussen with 5 points.