Manti and Emery met in the third place game on Saturday in the Sevier Valley Center. It was a rubber match between the two teams after each team won at home in the regular season. Both teams came out with a lot of intensity in the back-and-forth contest. Emery was able to pull ahead at the end of the first quarter, 17-12.
The Templars came back in the following period and regained the lead with a three pointer, 25-23. Cade Brazier immediately took the lead back with a three of his own. Manti answered back with another three only to have Brazier again follow suite, 31-30 Spartans. Manti was not going to go away though and battled back to go into halftime up, 35-33.
The Spartans struggled to get offensive rebounds at the beginning of the second, half which put them further behind the eight ball. There was no quit in this Emery team as they erupted on an 8-0 run capped off by a Kyson Stilson layup to tie the game at 48. Emery and Manti traded blows for the next several minutes until Brazier hit back-to-back threes to give the Spartans a 64-59 lead. That would be all the room Emery would need as they took third in state in a competitive 3A classification with a 78-73 victory.
Seniors Stilson and Brazier had phenomenal games to end their high school careers with 28 and 25 points, respectively. Stilson also led the team with 11 rebounds for a double-double. Brax Jensen recorded a double-double as well with 14 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals. Brodie Tuttle was a disrupter on defense, deflecting balls and getting three of the Spartan’s nine steals. Kyler Wilstead and Rance Jensen played well and did the dirty work down low to help the Spartans secure the victory.
Congratulations to the Emery Spartans for a great year!
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- Photos by Jeff Barrett
