Basketball Kicks Off in Castle Country

Both Emery basketball squads as well as the Carbon boys kicked off the 2017-18 season on Tuesday night. The Green River girls played their third game of the season with a road contest at Grand County.

Both Emery teams won their respective games. The Lady Spartans dominated last year’s 1A champion, Bryce Valley, from the opening tip. Emery won the lopsided affair, 71-23. The Lady Spartans allowed just eight points in the first half, followed by two points in the third to take a whopping lead into he fourth quarter, 60-10. Kacelyn Toomer led all scorers in the game with 24 points on 11-14 shooting. Megan Jensen also added 13 points. In all, 12 players scored in the game.

The Emery boys took a wire-to-wire win against the Delta Rabbits on the road, 74-57. The Spartans nailed nine threes in the game, four from Tyler Butler, who led Emery with 22 points. Brax Jensen hit three of his own en route to 17 points. Kyson Stilson poured in 16 and Easton Gordon chipped in 14.

The Dinos took a home loss to the Tooele Buffaloes, 58-40.

Green River made the trip to Moab to begin its season. Maribel Escalante, who led the state of Utah in made threes a season ago with 80, led the Lady Pirates in the losing effort, pouring in 15 points, including two treys. Grand upended Green River, though, 44-40.

Castle Country teams will be back in action next week. Both Dino squads will take part in weekend tournaments, the boys at the Central High School Tournament in Colorado and the girls at the Uintah Tournament.

The Emery boys will travel to Maple Mountain on Tuesday and to the Central Utah Basketball Preview at the Sevier Valley Center in Richfield where they will take on Morgan and Dixie. The girls will have tough road matchups at North Summit on Tuesday and Millard on Thursday.

The Pinnacle boys will kick off the season Wednesday with a road tilt at Dugway. They will then travel to ALA next Friday. The girls will play at Tintic on Tuesday and Rockwell on Thursday.

The Green River Pirates will play at Grand on Tuesday and at the Eagle Colorado Tournament the following weekend. The Lady Pirates will next play Emery’s JV squad on Saturday, Dec. 2.