Exactly 11 years later to the day and the hour, the Emery High Lady Spartans won their third 3-A Utah State basketball championship, this time by defeating region rival Richfield 41-36 in a come-from-behind victory. Emery last played on this floor on Feb. 24, 2007 and defeated Dixie High that day by the score of 51-40. Current Emery coach Rachel Rasmussen Hallows along with Camille Fehlberg, Megan Pearson, Jodi Robertson and Shianne Allred started on that team. That was the Lady Spartans first title and came a year after finishing second in a one-point loss to Canyon View.
Emery trailed on Saturday evening 8-7 after the first quarter and 22-14 at the half as Emery struggled with the Wildcat defense and had difficulty in scoring, maybe nerves also came into play. Emery made just six of 19 shots in that first half while Richfield had made six of 13 in the second quarter. Thank goodness Megan Jensen came to play as she scored 15 of Emery’s first 17 points.
Emery did not look like the team that we had known all year and a team that had already won 24 games. “I swore a lot under my breath during that game and then my team finally showed up,” Coach Lynn Tuttle expressed after the win. He was all smiles now.
When his team shows up, they show up really well. They narrowed the gap to five at the end of three periods. Emery tied the score early in the fourth quarter as Megan continued scoring and scored three points after being fouled on a shot. Kacelyn Toomer got on the scoreboard with a pair of free throws and Emery and Richfield were tied at 30-30.
Richfield retook the lead with a three-point shot on their next possession, little did we know then that the Wildcats would not score again in the game until the final buzzer was going off as the Emery team walked off the court celebrating the win. It was now all Emery. Megan scored again, making the score 33-32. Richfield had three opportunities on the next trip down court to score but all three shots were misfires. Down one Morgan Hurdsman found herself alone in the corner with the ball, thought about for maybe a tenth of a second and she let it fly, a three-point shot that was good and Emery had the lead for the first time since early the first quarter.
After a Richfield turnover Emery scored again on a shot by Megan. Emery closed out the game making four of eight free throw attempts, two were the front end of one and ones.
Including the final two points of the third quarter, Emery went on an 18-3 run to win the game and the title. Then the fans went wild. Megan finished the game with 25 points as she made nine of 14 shots in the game. She also had 10 rebounds, a blocked shot and a steal. The rest of the team made just three of 18 shots during the game.
Richfield made 14 of 47 shots, 15 more shots than Emery took as they out-rebounded Emery 31-22 in the game. Kacelyn Toomer scored 4 points as she went four for four at the line in the second half, Kinlee Toomer scored 3 points as she went three for four at the line, Lainee Jensen scored 4 points as she made a pair of free throws in the first half and a basket in the third quarter.
Bailey Huggard scored 2 points in the third quarter and led the team with 3 assists and had 3 rebounds and then there was Morgan with just her one shot and that shot made a difference. By the way Morgan’s defense on Richfield’s top scorer over the last quarter and a half was something special to watch, that also helped win the game.
Emery defeated Carbon on Thursday, the first meeting in several years since the teams are no longer in the same region by the score of 70-44. The Lady Spartans went on a 12-0 run to close out the first half at 40-26 and then the Spartans closed out the game on a 24-5 run, limiting Carbon to just three points in the fourth quarter. Megan led the way with 23 points on 10 of 14 shooting and had 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Three other Spartan ended the game scoring in double figures as Kinlee had 13 points, Kacelyn 11 points and Lainee 10 points. Kinlee also had 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals: Kacelyn had 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal and Lainee had 4 assists and 3 steals. Bailey scored 3 points and had 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. Morgan scored 6 points and Tayden Nielson and Brileigh Curtis each scored 2 points. Emery shot 59 percent for the game from the field.
On Friday Emery faced the Lady Cowboys from Grantsville and the Spartans won that game 56-36 to advance to the championship game. Emery used an 11-0 run at the end of the first quarter to build their lead and then they maintained that throughout. Kacelyn led the way with 17 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals. Megan had 12 points and 9 rebounds while Lainee finished with 9 points, 3 rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Bailey ended the game with 8 points and 7 rebounds while Kinlee scored 4 points and had 7 rebounds. Morgan scored 4 and Tayden scored 2 to close out the Emery scoring.
Emery also won a championship in 2011 after finishing the season with a 17-4 record and they defeated Carbon in the championship game by the score of 55-42 at the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah. Starters on that team included Megan’s older sister Brooke along with Taylor Mann, Blayr Jeffs, Tayler Jewkes and Jessica Murray. In the last 13 seasons, Emery has won three titles and finished second four other times including an overtime loss last season to North Sevier after having defeated the Wolves twice during the season and two one-point losses to Wasatch and to Canyon View high schools.
Emery finished the season with a 25-1 record after finishing last season with a 22-2 record. Emery will return four starters next season with Lainee departing via graduation. Lainee was an Academic All-State recipient this season with a 4.0 GPA and was honored at halftime along with other players from 3-A. Megan was named tournament MVP by the Deseret News and Kacelyn and Kinlee were named to the first team on the tournament selection. The Lady Spartans were ranked by the Deseret News as the best team in 3-A ball and the seventh best team in the whole state.
Congratulations Lady Spartans, you earned this and we all enjoyed the season. Good luck next year.
Lady Spartans 3-A champs
Spartans