With the conclusion last week of region 15 action, the regular season came to an end for the Emery High Lady Spartans and now post season action will begin this Friday morning at 9 a.m. at Orem High School. Eight games will be played Friday and the Lady Spartans vs. North Sevier will kick off the opening day with their early game. Four teams from each of the four 2-A regions will be vying for their seasons to continue as this week is really simple, you win, you play again but if you lose, you go home. North Sevier finished third in region 16 with an overall record of 11-9. Emery defeated North Sevier on Dec. 6 by the score of 60-30.
Emery went 2-1 over their final three games as they lost at home to Richfield 64-50 and then defeated Grand at home 54-24 and then closed out the season by defeating San Juan in Blanding by the score of 71-56. Emery finished the season with an 11-7 record and they finished region play with a 6-2 record.
Against the Richfield Wildcats, Emery started the game slowly as they fell behind 19-4 in the opening quarter and it looked at that time as to be a very long evening. Emery battled back in the second quarter to narrow the gap to 30-27 at the half. Although Emery stayed in the game right to the end, they could never overtake the number one ranked Wildcat team. Emery lost season leader in scoring for the team Ashlynn Allred midway through the third quarter with an injury as she landed on her head. Allred missed both games last week with a concussion but will be ready to play this Friday.
In their games against Grand and San Juan, Emery never let their opponents have any hope of staging an upset as they got out early and then kept the pressure on their two opponents. Emery led Grand 15-2 after the first quarter and 30-7 at the half before cruising to the win as 12 different Spartans scored in the game as Coach Stilson went to his bench early and often.
At San Juan, Emery led 16-11 at the quarter and 37-21 at the half. After the Spartans won the third period 19-14, the home team finally gave their fans something to cheer about in the closing period as they won the quarter 21-15.
Hannah Dyer led the team in scoring against both Richfield and San Juan. Dyer scored 19 points in the first game and 17 points against the Broncos. Dyer had four 3-pointers against the Wildcats and five in the other game. Shelby Allred also had a hot hand from outside against San Juan as she nailed four threes enroute to scoring 16 points.
Also scoring against Richfield were Ashlynn Allred with six points, Jeridi Price with eight points, Shelby with three points, Bailey Rasmussen with eight points and Kelcie Cox, Ashton Bell and Emily Olsen each with two points.
Also scoring against San Juan were Rasmussen with 12 points, Price with nine points, Bell with six points, Sidnee Conder with four points Olsen with three points and Cox and Cassidy Labrum with two points each. Scoring against Grand were Price with 10 points, Shelby with eight points, Rasmussen and Kambrie Hinkins with six points, Cox with four points, Emily Olsen, Camry Johnson, Paytn Jeffs and Sidnee Conder with three points each and Lacie McElprang and Lexie Huntington with two points each. The winners of this Friday’s games will advance to Southern Utah University next week in Cedar City to continue play in 2-A action. Games will start on Thursday and conclude with the championship game Saturday evening.
The Emery boys team concluded their region action for the season by winning two of their three final contests and securing the second seed out of region 15 for the upcoming Utah State 2-A basketball tournament. Emery will start the post-season play by playing in the opening game this Saturday at Orem High School. Game time is set for 9 a.m. Emery will play Manti High, the third seed out of region 16.
Emery is currently ranked fourth in 2-A basketball and Manti is ranked fifth by the Salt Lake City newspapers. The top two ranked teams, Wasatch Academy and South Sevier, are both in the other side of the bracket and will probably face each other in the semifinals. The winner of the Emery-Manti game might just be favored to go all the way to the final game. Emery defeated both Grand and San Juan last week in securing the second seed after having lost the previous week to Richfield. Emery defeated Grand 89-63 and San Juan 72-62 after losing to the Wildcats 61-59 the previous week in a game that went down to the wire and concluded with a controversial call that went against the Spartans. Emery will be looking to avenge the defeat.
At Richfield, three Spartans ended the game in double figures but it wasn’t quite enough as Emery lost by two. The two teams were tied at the end of each of the first three quarters and should have been tied at the end of regulation. Dawson Jensen led Emery with 18 points with Bailey Faimalo right behind with 15 points and Brendon Jorgensen ending with 12 points. Dillon Wilstead just missed double figures as he scored nine points. David Dyer scored three points and Spencer Labrum scored two points to close out the scoring. Faimalo had nine assists in the game to lead the team.
Against Grand, Faimalo not only tied for the leading scorer in the game with 12 points, Bailey also had 12 assists in the game plus five steals and four rebounds. Also scoring 12 points each were Wilstead and Curtis Mason. Joining those three in double figures were three more teammates; Labrum with 11 points and Jensen and Dyer with 10 points each. Also scoring were Logan Tuttle with five points, Jorgensen, Corbin Barnett and Drexler Tanner with four points each, Beau Roundy with three points and Gavin McDermott with two points.
Against San Juan, Emery led the entire game but could never quite shake the Broncos to secure an easy victory. Emery outscored the Broncos 15-5 in the first part of the second quarter only to see the Broncos go on a 5-11 run to narrow the gap. In the third quarter, San Juan narrowed Emery’s lead to four points before the Spartans went on 11-0 run to make the home fans breathe a little easier. San Juan closed to within six points in the final period only to see Emery score the final four points of the game to secure the win. Jensen led the team with 18 points and also had seven rebounds in the game. Faimalo was right behind with 16 points and David Dyer added 15 points as he had his best game of the season. Also scoring were Jorgensen with 10 points, Wilstead with eight points and Mason with five points.
Basketball teams to advance to state tourney
"Cutline"