Last week was different for the Emery High Spartan boys’ basketball team as they split their region games against North and South Sevier. On Wednesday Emery traveled to Salina to play the Wolves and ended up with an overtime loss while South Sevier came to town of Friday night and the Spartans were able to put behind them an earlier loss in the region season.
At Salina, Emery was up at the end of the first quarter 17-11 and up at the half 32-28 against a North Sevier team that is mostly made up of underclassmen. After the half senior point guard Bailey Faimalo never returned to the floor as he began suffering an allergic reaction and had to be taken to the hospital in Gunnison. He is now alright and did play Friday night after missing a little school.
After losing Faimalo, Dillon Wilstead, the leading scorer for the season for Emery, found himself in foul trouble a minute into the second half and then had to sit for most of the second half.
Emery lost the third quarter 12-6 but came back to win the fourth quarter 10-8 to force overtime. North Sevier hit a long three-pointer with three seconds left in regulation to tie the game and kept the Spartans from winning.
Gavin McDermott led the team effort with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Beau Roundy scored 15 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to play well off the bench. Faimalo scored 9 points in the first half and Wilstead had 8 points in the game. Drexler Tanner scored 4 and McKlane Allred and Ridge Nielson each scored 3 points
The loss came down to poor shooting, 18 percent from behind the three-point line and 14 for 30 at the free throw line, a 47 percent average. Emery wins the game easily even without two players if they shoot normal free throws.
Against South Sevier, Emery fell behind 15-8 in the first quarter with a pair of 3-pointers by Allred sandwiched around a basket by McDermott being Emery’s only scores. In the second period, Allred hit another pair of threes to go along with two free throws to help Emery to a 20-5 advantage in the quarter. Faimalo added 6 points.
Neither team could score in the third quarter, a quarter that the Rams won 5-2. Tanner made a basket two minutes into the period for Emery’s only points.
In the final period Emery won the quarter by 10 points as they outscored the Rams 22-12 to get what looked like on paper an easy win but was anything but.
Allred led the team with 17 points and added 3 rebounds and 3 steals to his effort for the night. Faimalo scored 11 points and had 9 assists and 3 steals. Wilstead and Roundy each scored 7 points. Roundy had 5 rebounds and Wilstead had 3 steals. McDermott scored 6 points but led the team with 9 rebounds. Tanner was the only other Spartan to score and he finished with 4 points and also had 6 rebounds.
Emery plays a single game this week, a rematch with region 15 leader and the top ranked team in 2-A basketball Wasatch Academy on Friday night in the Spartan Center. The team concludes the region season a week from Tuesday with a game at Grand.
Emery boys basketball defeats South Sevier
"Bailey Faimalo puts up the shot against South Sevier."