Lady Spartans win on the road/drop one at home

By GARY ARRINGTON sports writer

Last week the Emery High Lady Spartans played two games, one on the road and one at home. They defeated South Sevier in Monroe 70-40 before coming home for their home opener and losing to the North Summit Braves 53-47.
The three teams to beat in the preseason polls were North Sevier, Emery and North Summit. North Summit returns this season four seniors with three of them being returning starters. The Braves should be good and on this night, they won the game.
Emery maybe should have won this game but the final quarter belonged to the Braves as the Emery team went cold in the shooting department and then they experienced a turnover problem.
Emery led 17-14 after the first quarter and then 26-24 at the half. Emery extended the lead to 37-32 after three quarters and then scored the first basket of the fourth quarter and led 39-32. At this point a coaches’ and a players’ worst nightmare came about, nothing went in the basket for the Spartans. Not up close, not out far. North Summit ran off 16 straight points before the Spartans scored again with 2:20 left in the game and Emery never got close enough after that to threaten.
Emery is a young team, starting four sophomores and a junior with the first player off the bench being another sophomore. In this game the inexperience showed but this is what preseason games are for, to help players get better and the Emery team will get better.
Megan Jensen led the Emery effort with 18 points and Kacelyn Toomer added 14 points including the making of four 3-pointers.
Kinlee Toomer and Lainee Jensen each scored 5 points with Morgan Hurdsman scoring 3 points and Bailey Huggard 2 points. Although North Summit starts four seniors and a junior, their best player in this game was a freshman and as she did in the first two games of the day, she was the go-to player but it was only in the varsity game that she led her team to victory.
Earlier in the week Emery went ahead early in their game against South Sevier and they never let up. Emery led 15-8 after the first quarter and then 38-19 at the half. They extended the lead to 57-25 before the freshmen team closed out the game.
Megan again led the team in scoring as she scored 16 points. Bailey Huggard scored 12 points and then Kacelyn Toomer, Kinlee Toomer and Lainee Jensen each scored 9 points. Adri Childs scored 4 points, Hailey Jo Allred scored 3 points and Kira Saling, Morgan Hursdman and Taijah Price each scored 2 points. Erin Hurst scored the final point. Emery will host two games this week, Tuesday against North Sanpete and Thursday night against Richfield.