After opening the season with four straight victories, the Emery High boy’s basketball team suffered their first lost of the season on a visit to Kanab. After defeating Millard High the previous night in Fillmore, the team traveled on south the next day to the Arizona border to play the Cowboys. Emery defeated Millard 60-50 and then lost to Kanab 82-67.
While the final score shows Emery losing by 15 points, the actual game was closer than that. Emery had cut their deficit to as few as five points in the final quarter but could never close the gap to actually grab the lead. The point difference was due to the fouls committed by the Spartans in hopes of getting the ball back and scoring while the Cowboys missed free throws. This never happened as Kanab scored their free throws and Emery missed shots.
Emery did have an excuse though as they had bus troubles and were late in arriving at Kanab. The sophomore game only played two quarters instead of four due to the delay. A bus from the Beaver district took the team to Kanab while another Emery bus arrived to take the team home.
Against Millard, Emery won both of the first two quarters and then tied the final two in securing the road win. The score after the first was 17-11 and at the half it was 31-21. Both teams scored 15 points in the third quarter and both teams scored 14 points in the final period.
Center Dawson Jensen led the team with 20 points and collected 11 rebounds. Forward Spencer Labrum led the team in rebounds with 15 while scoring 10 points. Brendon Jorgensen scored 13 points, had 6 rebounds and dished out 4 assists. Point guard Bailey Faimalo scored 12 points, had 4 assists, 8 rebounds and the only blocked shot of the game. David Dyer scored 3 points and Corbin Barnett scored 2 points in the game.
At Kanab, the Cowboys outscored the Spartans in every period. Kanab led 21-17 after the first period and 34-29 at the half after outscoring Emery 13-12 in the second period. It was Kanab 20-18 in the third quarter and 28-20 in the final period as the Cowboys won by 15 points.
Faimalo was the leading scorer in this game with 20 points. Faimalo also led the team with 6 assists and 4 steals while grabbing 3 rebounds. Dillon Wilstead scored 13 points and Jorgensen scored 12 points to be the only other Spartans in double figures. Also scoring were Jensen with 9 points, Labrum with 7 points and Otis Addison and Barnett with 2 points each.
Labrum again led the team in rebounding, this time with 11. Jorgensen and Barnett had six each. Addison, Jensen and Barnett each had a blocked shot in the game.
As a team, the Spartans are shooting 43 percent from the field for the season, 24 percent from behind the 3-point line and 57 percent at the free throw line. The team is shooting 55 percent inside the three-point line.
In these two games, Emery shot 36 percent against Millard and 34 percent against Kanab. The team was 2 for 28 against Millard on 3-point shots for 7 percent and they were 5 for 31 against the Cowboys for 16 percent. Both are lower than their season average.
Faimalo has the leading scoring average for the season with 14.2 points per game. Jorgensen is averaging 11.2 points and Jensen is averaging 11.0 points. Labrum is the leading rebounder with 10.4 average while Jensen is averaging 7.8.
Faimalo leads the team with 20 steals while Curtis Mason has 9 steals. Mason leads in deflections with six while Faimalo has five. Faimalo has a 4.8 assists per game average while Jorgensen is averaging 3.4.
The team has a single game this week, a game against Carbon. The game is in Castle Dale, as the team will play their first home game of the season. Varsity action will start at 7 p.m.
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