ETV News stock photo by Dusty Butler
Last Friday night, the Spartan Center featured a game of unbeaten teams with a matchup between Emery and North Summit, who were both 8-0 entering the game.
Both teams struggled offensively in the opening quarter. Heading into the second quarter with a 7-7 tie, the game went back and forth in a competitive first half. North Summit hit a shot at the buzzer to pull ahead 22-21 at halftime.
The Lady Spartans came out firing in the second quarter. North Summit was keeping pace with Emery until Morgan Hurdsman went off. She hit four three-pointers in the third quarter alone to help gain some distance from the Lady Braves.
“The first half, I wasn’t hitting my shots. After the half, I knew I needed to start hitting them,” Hurdsman said. “Once I hit that first one, it gave me a little confidence and I said to myself, ‘Alright, I can hit these.'”
Emery outscored North Summit 23-12 in the third quarter and that was all the room they would need. The Lady Spartans remain undefeated with a 62-52 win. They were able to gain the victory without their season’s leading scorer, Megan Jensen, making a single field goal.
“They are a really good ball club,” Hurdsman explained. “They shut down Meg for sure.” Jensen ended the game with four points all from the free throw line, by far her lowest game total.
The Spartans knew that they would be tested defensively. “They definitely have good guards,” Hurdsman said. “We knew we needed to shut down number 12, Kennady McQueen.” McQueen ended the night with a game-high 25 points, but a lot of her points came at the end of the game, when Emery had a substantial lead.
Hurdsman led the Spartans with 17 points. Kinlee Toomer had a great game and recorded a double-double with 13 points and a team-high 14 rebounds and five steals. Kacelyn Toomer and Hailey Allred each hit some big shots and finished with 12 and 10 points, respectively. The Spartans remained composed throughout the game.
“We stepped it up in all areas of our game [in the second half] because we didn’t want to lose. We don’t like to lose,” Hurdsman concluded.
Emery (9-0, 0-0 Region 15) has its first conference game on Jan. 2 in the Spartan Center against South Sevier (8-2, 0-0 Region 15). The game will be streamed live on ETV Channel 10 and online.