The second half of the region schedule began on Wednesday evening when the Spartans traveled to Nephi to face the Juab Wasps. In a tight game throughout, Emery dug deep and found a way to hand the No. 5 Wasps their fourth loss of the season, 74-71.
The Spartans knew they were in a dogfight right from the start as Juab came out in the first on fire, but Emery was able to match the intensity and the first quarter came to an end with the Wasps on top 21-19. Moving into the second it was the Spartans turn as they would go on a tear scoring 25 in the quarter and going to the locker room at the half up by two 44-42.
In the third quarter, the pace of the game slowed down and Emery made sure to stay one step ahead of Juab keeping them at arm’s length. The two teams went to the final eight minutes with the Spartans on top 59-54. Emery was up 71-69 with 19 seconds left. Porter Hurdsman would get fouled with 15 and a half seconds left and would hit both free throws to put the Emery lead at 73-69. After an over-and-back call against the Wasps, Scott Johansen would get fouled on the inbound pass sending him to the line where he would hit one of two, a layup by Juab as time ran out let The Spartans go on to take the 74-71 win.
After the game Coach Dave Justice talked with KOAL’s Jordan Buscarini and talked about the team’s offensive output.
“We moved the ball really, really well, so we were getting those inside-out threes, credit to our kids for knocking them down. We were taking good shots, that’s kind of what we preached the last couple of days, we felt against Sanpete we kind of forced some threes, and we were fortunate to get a win in that one. We just really talked the last couple of days about really getting those threes inside out, and taking good attempts and sharing the ball.”
Hurdsman had a huge night for the Spartans with 25 points, he also grabbed two rebounds and had three steals and three assists. Jace Frandsen had another great game scoring 17 while getting three rebounds and dishing out seven assists, and Scott Johansen came up with 14 and six rebounds.
The Spartans get back on the court Friday night when they welcome the Delta Rabbits to the Spartan Center.
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.