High school girls basketball: Emery highlights intriguing 3A girls tourney

The landscape of 3A girls basketball changed immensely in last Friday's first round.

No. 1 Morgan — eliminated.

Highly-regarding Judge — eliminated.

In one very unpredictable night, the entire state tournament was given a major jolt, which makes for a very interesting quarterfinal round at Utah Valley University this Thursday.

"You get to this point of the tournament, as soon as the playoffs start it doesn't necessarily mean that the best team is going to win, or the teams that thought it was the best," said Emery coach Steven Gordon. "Anybody can win, you just have to hope your kids are ready to play hard."

Region 12's teams were the ones who came to play last weekend, something many didn't foresee happening.

Region 11, highlighted by Morgan, Judge and Juan Diego, was believed to be the elite league in Class 3A this year. It seemed like a no-brainer all three would advance to the quarterfinals. Instead, Juan Diego is the lone Region 11 quarterfinalist along with three teams each from Region 10 and 12 and one from Region 9.

"I was glad to see our region do well. I knew we had a pretty tough region all along," said Gordon.

Emery (21-1) was the class of Region 12 all year, but it will have its hands full in the quarterfinals against Union (20-1) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Emery and Union were the two highest-scoring teams in 3A this year, and their only losses were each by one measly point.

One point can make a big difference though, something Emery knows very, very well.

In two of the previous four 3A state tournaments, the Spartans lost the title game by one point, including a 32-31 setback to Wasatch last season. In 2006 they lost to Canyon View 38-37.

Most of Emery's players were in junior high during the 2006 loss, but last year's loss is still fresh in everyone's mind. That gives the Spartans a big edge in experience.

Despite Union's impressive regular season and finishing as co-Region 10 champions, its 42-35 win over Cedar last Friday was the program's first opening-round victory since 2003.

"Their guard play is really good. We have some good big guys," said Gordon. "Both teams are really good. I think it's going to be a battle."

The showdown of 20-win teams highlights what should be an interesting quarterfinal round at UVU.