At Orem High School, with 15 seconds left in the 2-A playoff game between the Emery High Lady Spartans and the Millard Lady Eagles, Millard hits a pair of free throws and the Spartans are down 53-48 and things do not look good for Emery. Emery gets the ball into the fore court and with 5.8 seconds on the clock freshman Lainee Jensen hits a three-pointer and the Spartans are down by two and Emery quickly calls time out. Millard attempts to get the ball inbounds but instead throws it away out of bounds and it is Emery ball under their own basket. The ball is inbounded to senior Bailey Rasmussen in the paint and Bailey banks a shot in and just like that the game is tied and goes to overtime. The score is 53-53.
In overtime, Millard goes up 3-0 and it stays that way for a while until Jensen hits another three-pointer to tie it again. With 21.5 seconds left in the overtime, Millard scores again and the Spartans are down by two. Five seconds later, senior Emily Olsen scores and is fouled and goes to the line to shoot a free throw. It is good and the Spartans lead. Millard shoots a long three from the corner, banks it off the glass and scores and Emery has four seconds left to save the day but a shot from half court by Camrey Johnson bounces away and the most exciting game of the day comes to a close and the Spartans are done. Final score
Millard 61 Emery 59.
The Spartans were still in this game up until the final shot despite too many turnovers, being outrebounded and the other team shooting 31 free throws to Emery’s nine. Two Lady Spartans fouled out of the contest to put them a little short handed.
Emery led 11-9 after the first quarter but Bayler Griffin and Ashton Bell each picked up two fouls and had to sit for a while. Griffin is the point guard that keeps the offense running while Bell had a great game and turned out to be Emery’s leading scorer in this game with 22 points. Millard won the second quarter 14-11 and led 23-22 at the half. Fouls were 9-2 in this half with Emery on the wrong side of the fouls.
In the third quarter, Emery scored the first seven points with Johnson hitting a three-point shot followed by Bell scoring and then Johnson scoring on a lay-up after a steal. Johnson hit another three after a Millard basket and with four minutes to go in the period, Emery led 32-25. The team scored only three points each over the last half of the quarter. In the fourth quarter the two teams exchanged points until about four minutes left and then it was all Millard until the last second heroics talked about earlier. Emery had a one and one foul shot attempt with 53 seconds left in regulation and the first shot was missed.
Griffin fouled out of the game followed by Cassidy Labrum fouling out of the game early in the fourth quarter. Emery joined region 15 teams San Juan and South Sevier in losing on opening day while North Sevier defeated defending 2-A state champion Enterprise in their game.
Ashton Bell was the leading scorer with 22 points spread evenly throughout the game. Camrey Johnson scored 12 points and Emily Olsen scored 9 points. Bailey Rasmussen and Lainee Jensen each scored 8 points.
Lady Spartans drop game to Millard in first round
"Lady Spartans finish their season in Orem: Team members include: Coach Dean Stilson, Lacie Funk, Erin Hurst, Sam Morgan, Addie Healy, Kabri Butler, Jaicee Shiew, Emily Olsen, Kira Saling, Jessica Olsen, Lexi Chynoweth, Bailey Rasmusen, Taijah Price, Aniston Curtis, Lainee Jensen, Lexie Huntington, Abbie Huntington, Ashton Bell, Jayla Weston, Cassidy Labrum, Bayler Griffin, Camrey Johnson, Coach Brandy Truman, Coach Brink Griffin."