The Spartans were on their home floor on Friday night to face the No.6 ranked Templars.  The Spartans have had some struggles of late but put those behind them and held on to take down the Templars 46-43.

The Templars, who fell two spots in the latest RPI to No.8, after the loss, are now sitting at 7-6.

Spartan coach Dave Justice told us after the game they new exactly what they were going to get from Manti.

“We kind of had that early lead, played well in the first quarter, and then they kind of had a run there. Even when we got up four or five, I was like, ‘Guys they’re not going to give it to you, they’re going to crawl and fight’, Coach Shakespeare, does a fantastic job, they are super well coached and they get after it.”

The Spartans jumped out to a 15-7 lead in the first quarter only to be up 22-20 at the half.

Emery stuck with it though, outscoring the Templars 24-23 in the second half and holding on for the three point lead.

Wade Stilson had a great all-around game for the Spartans scoring 13 with six boards, four assists and three steals. Luke Justice added 12, three assists and two steals as well. Ryker Jensen dropped seven points of his own with three rebounds and three steals in the win.

Up next for the Spartans is a trip to Richfield to face the Wildcats on Wednesday.  Richfield, currently holds the No. 14 spot with a 4-8 record. This will be the first region game for both teams as the non-region part of their schedules is now over and they must both get down to conference business the rest of the season.

Emery will be back home on Friday to face Canyon View.

You can tune into KOAL 107.3 FM and 750 AM at 6:30 on Wednesday for the Landon’s Diesel Service Pre-game show.  Tip-off is set for 7. You can also catch the stream on castlecountryradio.com