| ShiAnne Allred, Rachel Rasmussen and Jodie Lundell play defense, while a call is made by the referee. |
The Emery High Lady Spartans had their final warm-up for region basketball last week. With 4-A’s Springville High in town for a preseason game, the Spartans sent them home with a convincing 57-38 loss. The game was only close for the first three and a half minutes. With Emery leading 8-6, the Spartans scored the last 12 points of the first quarter and never let the Red Devils threaten again.
Emery, who had played a tough preseason schedule not only for whom they played but also for how quickly they played them, came back from the Christmas break looking fresh and competitive. Coach Steven Gordon had this to say about his team, “I am happy with tonight’s win. I hate to say this but we actually played better than I thought we might after having been off all those days.”
With the score close in the first quarter, Jodie Lundell hit consecutive three-point shots to help break open the game. Lundell finished the game as the team’s second leading scorer with 12 points and also came up with three steals on defense.
The second quarter saw the Spartans become a little lax on defense and a little less determined in their play as they allowed Springville to actually win the quarter 16-14 and to still be hanging around at the half.
Rachel Rasmussen led Emery with six points in the third period and helped squelch any hope the Devils had with tough interior defense. After having scored seven points in the first half, Rachel finished as the leading scorer for the night with 13 points. Rachel also finished with a team high 8 rebounds.
The fourth quarter saw liberal substitutions by both sides as it appeared that both teams just wanted to get the game over with. Lundell hit another 3-pointer in the period before she sat down for the night.
Camille Fehlberg finished the night with 11 points and 2 steals. ShiAnne Allred came close to double figures as she scored 8 points on the night but missed four of six free throw attempts. Jodi Robertson and Frankie Komar each finished the game with 4 points. Robertson also pulled down 5 rebounds in the game. Shalae Cox was efficient with her playing time as she grabbed six rebounds to go along with 2 points. Sierra Bridgewater was the only other player to score as she hit a free throw late in the game.
Coach Gordon added this about his team, “We played pretty good defense tonight. We were scrappy and seemed to keep them out of their game.”
Emery now opens region play with a trip to Juan Diego this Thursday and then will host Delta and Carbon next Tuesday and Thursday in the Spartan Center.