On paper, this looked like an easy week for the Lady Spartan basketball team and in the end it turned out that way although for three quarters it was anything but. The injury to senior Lacey Montgomery turned out worse than first thought, with her knee injury being an ACL.
At the writing of this story, it appeared that Lacey was going to forego surgery and try and play with a knee brace to give her side-to-side support.
Emery defeated Cedar High on Tuesday night 52-31 and then played the severely out-manned American Leadership Academy on Thursday night and won the game 74-38. If Emery had not been really, really nice, they might have won by double that score.
Against Cedar, Emery led 11-7 after the first quarter, 19-14 at the half and 27-25 after three quarters. One can tell from these scores compared to the final of 52-31 to see that Emery finally showed up in the final period.
After the game Coach Steven Gordon talked to his team, “We have got to show up mentally at the start of the game. Some of us were somewhere else tonight. You’ve got to show up ready to play. Seniors, you need to lead. Hopefully, we learn from this game.”
That final quarter score of 25-6 shows the explosiveness of this team when they decide to play together. Emery scored the first 15 points of the period as they turned up the defensive pressure and played confidently on both ends of the court. Center Abbie Kay led the team in that final quarter with 11 points on her way to 17 points in the game. Point guard Frankie Komar added nine points in the period on her way to a 15-point game.
Guard Jodi Robertson, the leading scorer this season for the Spartans, added four points and ShiAnne Allred scored one point to finish with eight points. Off the bench, Taylor Mann added two points; Jessica Murray added four points and Tiffany Tuttle scored two points.
ALA, a charter school from Spanish Fork, only brought 11 players to Castle Dale for their two ball games. Emery’s JV team started the evening with an easy win and the varsity finished it off. ALA was playing without their best player who also was out due to a knee injury. Emery played their game for the first quarter and then backed off as Coach Gordon went to the bench often.
Emery opened up with a 20-5 first quarter as Robertson was unstoppable with nine points. Emery won the second period 18-12 with Kay scoring six points. Emery turned it up in the third period, outscoring the Eagles 27-11. Kay had another six points and Robertson, Komar and Murray each scored five points.
Robertson and Kay finished the game with 16 points each and Komar added 13 points. Tiffany Tuttle and Murray each scored six points in the game with Allred, Mann and Markette Tanner scoring four points each. Tayler Jewkes and Whitney Roper each scored two points with Courtney Tuttle scoring one point.
Emery is on the road next week with games at Uintah and Grantsville. Emery’s next home game is after the holidays on Jan. 2.
Lady Spartans win two
"Frankie Komar tries to find the open player for a pass."