Lady Spartans clench first place in region

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

It did not come easy winning two basketball games last week but that is exactly what the Emery High Lady Spartans did and with the win came the 2008-9 region 8 basketball title. In a battle right to the end, Emery outdid the Carbon Dinos for the second time this season as they won the game 40-37. On Thursday, after the Carbon battle, the Spartans hosted North Sanpete, fell behind early, but ended up winning comfortably by a score of 53-40.
Emery now has an 8-0 region 8 record and the title with Carbon at 6-2 in second place. Emery and Carbon will both host playoff games in a couple of weeks when state play-offs begin.
Emery has an overall record of 14-4 with two games to play. Emery lost all four games on the road against ranked opponents Wasatch, Grantsville, Richfield and South Sevier. Carbon has a 6-3 record with the two losses to Emery and one to Wasatch. Carbon did defeat Grantsville and Morgan this season.
Emery fell behind this week in both games in the first quarter as both Carbon and North Sanpete took the early lead. Carbon grabbed a 5-0 lead with the Spartans not scoring until the 4:59 mark when Frankie Komar sank a foul shot. Emery tied the score at 7-7 and were down 9-7 as the quarter ran out.
A basket by Taylor Mann with two minutes gone in the second quarter tied the score at 9-9 and 75 seconds later Emery took their first lead at 11-9 on a basket by Jodi Robertson. Carbon did not score until the final two minutes of the quarter but Emery would lead at the half 17-13.
Carbon tied the score in the third quarter at 19-19, 21-21 and 23-23 but could never take the lead. Emery did not play great defense in the period and had way too many turnovers but still led 29-28 as the period ended.
In the fourth quarter, Emery went ahead 32-28 but Carbon came storming back and grabbed a 36-32 lead as they scored eight straight points. A basket by Abbie Kay with 2:32 left gave Emery the lead again at 37-36. After Carbon hit a free throw, ShiAnne Allred hit a free throw with 1:41 left to give Emery the lead that they never relinquished. Komar would hit a pair of free throws with :33 left and from here Emery held on for the win.
After the game, Coach Steven Gordon talked to his team, “We had 25 turnovers in the game but we won. Nice job, that was a great win on this floor. Don’t take it personal if I got on you during the game. Great job, I am proud of you.”
Emery shot well as they made 13 of 22 shots from the field. Komar and Jessica Murray each scored nine points to lead the team. Robertson added seven points and led the team with seven rebounds. Kay scored eight points with Allred scoring three points and Mann scoring four points.
Against the Hawks, Emery fell behind 15-7 in the first quarter and 22-12 in the first half before scoring the last 11 points of the quarter to lead 23-22 at the half. Abbie Kay led the way with nine points in the half.
Emery started the third period with a Robertson steal and basket as they scored the first seven points of the quarter and won the period 17-5 to lead 40-27. Both teams would score 13 points in the final period after Emery had stretched their lead to 51-30 with 3:21 left in the game.
Abbie Kay scored 20 points to lead the team. Frankie added nine points, four steals and three assists, while Jodi would score eight points. ShiAnne Allred scored four points but had six rebounds and two blocks. Jessica had six points and three steals and Taylor had four points and five rebounds.
After the game, Coach Gordon to his players, “Tonight we shot 20 for 55 from the field, we have got to a better job. We have got to play smarter, we have got to see the floor better and we have got to play the whole game.”
Emery will now travel to Salem Hills this Tuesday and will close out the regular season at home this Thursday against Juan Diego.