The Emery High boys basketball team went into the Christmas break on a two game losing streak after having opened the week with a relatively easy victory against an over-matched Merit Preparatory Academy in Springville on Monday night. Emery traveled to Beaver High and to Parowan High on Thursday and Friday and lost both games. Beaver won 65-52 and Parowan won 56-49.
At Merit Academy, Emery outscored the host team big in each quarter as they won the game 80-22. In the first quarter, Tyson Roper scored nine points and Tai Justice scored eight points to pace the Spartan team to a 24-6 lead. In the second quarter, Emery managed just 13 points led by Koby Butler with four points but still won the period 13-7.
In the third quarter, Emery sprinted to a huge period as they won the quarter 30-3. Roper had eight points, Justice seven points and Kolton Butler and Dillon Wilstead five points each. Emery won the final period 13-6.
Four Spartans finished in double figures scoring with Justice leading the way with 18 points, Roper with 17 points, Kolton Butler with 13 points and Dillon Wilstead with 10 points. Also scoring was Koby Butler and Zach Jorgensen with 6 points, Bowdie Jacobsen with 4 points and Keaton
McDermott with 2 points.
At Beaver, Emery didn’t play well against Beaver’s man defense and really never seemed to find any rhythm on offense. Emery was outscored in every quarter of the game as the Spartans lost. Wilstead led the way with 13 points while Roper added 11 points. Also scoring for the Spartans were Justice with 8 points, Kolton Butler with 7 points, Beau Roundy with 4 points, Jorgensen with 3 points and Kevin Butler, Koby Butler and Ridge Nielson with 2 points each.
At Parowan, Emery led 21-6 midway through the second quarter when the whole complexion of the game changed. After leading by 15 points,
Emery was outscored 13-0 to end the second quarter and Parowan continued the rampage into the third quarter as they won that period 15-4. So after leading 21-6, Emery was outscored 28-4 to trail 34-25 after three periods.
The final quarter was won by Emery 24-22 as the Spartans scored a lot of points but also gave up a lot of points. Roper led the way with 17 points with Justice scoring 15 points and Wilstead 10 points as the three ended in double figures. Also scoring were Nielson with 3 points and Kevin and Kolton Butler with 2 points
each. Emery will enjoy a little holiday break and then will return to action next week with a game against Carbon High in Price on Tuesday night.
Emery basketball week: boys win one, girls win one
"Emily Olsen brings the ball down court for Emery."