As expected, the Emery High Lady Spartans had a pair of blow-out victories at home last week as they defeated the bottom two teams of region 15 for the second time this season. Emery defeated Grand on Tuesday night 78-56 and then defeated Gunnison Valley on Thursday night 89-28. Emery will close out the region season this week with a pair of road games, Tuesday night at Manti and Thursday night at San Juan.
Right now region 15 is led by the Lady Spartans and the Lady Wolves of North Sevier, both with 7-1 region records. San Juan and Manti are both sitting with 4-4 records and right now have qualified for state. Grand High sits at 3-6 and Gunnison is 0-9. North Sevier goes to Grand on Thursday and will close out their season at San Juan on Friday night.
On Tuesday against Grand, Emery started the game off slowly as the score was only 2-2 with a couple of minutes gone and 9-9 when the halfway mark arrived. Emery closed the first quarter on a 6-2 run to lead 15-11. The second quarter was all Emery as they scored on eight straight possessions and won the period 26-12 and led 41-23. Camrey Johnson scored eight points to pace the team in that second period. Johnson led the team with 16 points followed by Lainee Jensen with 11 points and Bayler Griffin with 10 points. Eight other Spartans scored in this game led by Kacelyn Toomer with 8 points, Jessica Olsen with 7 points, Megan Jensen, Kinlee Toomer and Bailey Huggard with 6 points each, Aniston Curtis with 4 points, Abbie Huntington with 3 points and Taijah Price with 1 point. Olsen led the team with 9 rebounds, Griffin led with 5 steals and Kacelyn led with 3 assists.
On Thursday night it was senior night and the four seniors on the team were honored in pregame festivities. Bayler Griffin, Camrey Johnson, Jessica Olsena and Aniston Curtis, along with their parents, received some team gifts and had kind words spoke about them by their coaches. The four players then contributed to the lopsided win. Griffin had 6 points and 4 assists, Johnson had 11 points, Olsen had 10 points and Curtis had 7 points and 10 rebounds.
Emery led 20-6 after the first quarter, 42-15 at the half and 59-24 after three quarters of play. Besides the four seniors that scored in this game, ten other Lady Spartans also had a shot that found the bottom of the net. Lainee Jensen made five of seven three-point shots in the game and finished with 15 points and Lainee also had 8 rebounds. Kacelyn scored 10 points and led the team with 3 steals. Megan Jensen scored 8 points, Kinlee scored 5 points, Shyler Griffin and Hurst scored 4 points each, Price scored 3 points and Huggard, Huntington and Sam Morgan each scored 2 points.
Basketball moves into final week of region play
"Senior night honors Bayler Griffin, Jessica Olsen, Aniston Curtis and Camrey Johnson as they play their last home game."