Coming off a loss on Friday evening, the Spartans were back on the floor on Saturday to face the Uintah Utes. After a quiet first quarter, the Spartans turned up their offense and pushed through the remainder of the contest taking a 54-44 win in the Spartan Center.
The night before the Canyon View Falcons were in town. Canyon View, who sits at 10-3 and holds the No. 3 spot in the current RPI overpowered Emery claiming the 70-51 region win.
The first quarter was quiet for both teams as Emery wouldn’t score until there were just five minutes left, the Spartans would hold a slim lead toward the end but Uintah’s Jace Sutton hit a three to tie things up at 6-6 headed to the second. The next quarter was a lot of back and forth until Emery would put together a great run capped off by a Scott Johansen three-pointer pushing the score to 17-10 with three minutes left and causing the Utes to take a time out. The Spartans would add a couple more to take a 19-14 lead in the locker room at halftime.
In the third, both teams would pick up their scoring, as the Utes would tie things up at 28-28 which made Coach Justice take a time out this time to talk to the team. Uintah also turned up their defensive intensity as the Spartans were able to break the Utes’ press to take a 32-28 lead with just over three in the quarter as Braxton Butler found West Johansen low for two of his six points in the quarter. Despite Uintah’s offensive output, Emery would hold the 36-32 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
Emery would start off the fourth on a seven-nothing run that was powered by a corner three from Jace Frandsen and a hook shot down low from West Johansen pressuring the Utes to take another time out with just under six to play and Emery up 43-32. Scott Johansen would put up a three to give the Spartans a 10-point lead 46-36 with just over three minutes left. The Spartans finally closed out the Utes to take the 54-44 win.
After the contest coach Dave Justice joined KOAL’s Jordan Buscarini to talk about the win. Justice said it was all about defense for the Spartans.
“When we’ve had success is when we’ve been really good on the defensive end, the kids really know the game, really know their positions. If you’re not hitting from outside (meaning the other team), it’s going to be a long night because then we can really pack it in and make it difficult.”
Scott Johansen led the way for the Spartans putting up 15 points, grabbing three rebounds and two assists and steals. West Johansen added 12 with six rebounds and Porter Hurdsman had nine with ten boards in the win.
The Spartans will square up with the Carbon Dinos on Wednesday night at the gym in Price.
The Landon’s Diesel Pre-game Show will start at 6:30 with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on KOAL 107.3 FM or 750 AM as well as streaming at castlecountryradio.com or on the Castle Country Radio app. You can also catch the video stream live on our YouTube channel Castle Country Sports- Emery.