If the San Juan Broncos were riding high off their 81-31 takedown of the Monticello Buckaroo two weeks ago, their most recent game may have dampened their spirits a bit. San Juan took a hard 69-50 fall against Emery on Tuesday. While losing is never fun, San Juan can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Utah basketball rankings (they are ranked 106th, while Emery is ranked 26th).
When it comes to explaining why San Juan lost, one person who can't be blamed is Rj Dalley. Despite the final result, he scored 13 points. The matchup was Dalley's third in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Jagger Nieves, who scored four points along with eight rebounds.
Leading Emery to victory were Wade Stilson and Luke Justice. Stilson scored five points along with 18 rebounds and seven blocks, while Justice scored 18 points along with four steals. That makes it three consecutive games in which Justice has scored at least 25% of Emery's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Zack Tuttle, who scored 11 points along with six rebounds.
San Juan's loss dropped their record down to 5-7. As for Emery, the win was the ninth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 10-1.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. San Juan will square off against North Sevier at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. North Sevier is out to stop a three-game streak of losses at home. Emery won't have much time to rest: their next game is against Richfield at 7:00 p.m. on January 3rd. Richfield is strutting with some offensive muscle, as they've averaged 56.9 points per game.
