Spartans beat San Juan at home; lose by four points against Grand-Spartans out of town for two games this week

By GARY ARRINGTON

All that happened last week in region 15 boys’ basketball was that things got more confusing. South Sevier, Grand and Manti are all tied for first place with 4-2 region records followed closely by North Sanpete and Emery with 3-3 region records and then comes Richfield at 2-4 and San Juan at 1-5. These records reflect the first half of the region season and will make things really interesting in the second half. Six of these teams will make the 3-A state tournament this season and there are no sure winners or losers at this point.
To show you how weird this season is, last-place San Juan defeated Manti and came close to defeating Emery last week in Castle Dale but the Spartans prevailed 77-70. Richfield also gave South Sevier their second loss of the region season. It looks like a decent team this season will miss the playoffs and the other teams from the other two regions should be wary of playing any of these teams. Balance is the answer at this point.
Emery lost to Grand in Moab in their second game last week by the score of 90-86.  Emery fell behind against Grand and lost the first quarter 20-19 and then the second quarter 22-18. Emery tied up the game in the third period as they won the quarter 28-23. Grand came out on top 25-21 to close out the game and get the win. Four Spartans ended up in double figures scoring in the game but unfortunately Grand had five in double figures.  Kyson Stilson led the way for Emery with 18 points and Cade Brazier, Brax Jensen and Easton Gordon all finished with 16 points. Alex Orozco had 6 points, Kyler Wilstead had 4 points and Tyler Butler scored 2 points.
At home against San Juan Emery controlled the game for about two and a half quarters and built a 23 point lead.
 Emery led 60-35 with around two minutes to go in the third period but the Spartans scored just two more points in the period and had three turnovers in those final five possessions.  The Broncos scored on four of their final possessions and narrowed the gap to 62-46.
In the final quarter Emery went one for seven to open the period and managed to go just four for 12 over the entire quarter.
 San Juan meanwhile scored on eight straight possessions to narrow the deficit to three points but the Spartans made enough free throws at the end to preserve the win. In the San Juan game all five starters ended up scoring in double figures for the game.  
Gordon led the way with 18 points followed by Brazier with 16, Stilson with 15 and Jensen and Butler with 10 points each.  
Brazier scored eight points in the final period to help the Spartans get the win. Emery will face Richfield in Richfield on Wednesday night and then will travel to South Sevier on Friday.