Sandy • Homecoming is generally an affair for high school grads returning to the old stomping grounds. Back to the place where previous glory can be relived.
So in that sense maybe it was for Kemery Martin on Friday night.
She was back at Alta High and, like before, she was draining long-range 3-pointers, leading a fast break and zipping passes to teammates for easy buckets. But a few of those passes had a little too much mustard on them, and Martin admitted that she may have been a little too juiced at times.
It was only last season that she and older sister Mariah Martin were leading the Hawks to a 21-2 record. Mariah now is playing at Dixie State, and Kemery — still only a junior — was back as a member of the Corner Canyon Chargers, who are off to a 15-1 start while her old team is struggling and trying to rebuild.
The game went according to current form as Corner Canyon came away with a 76-50 victory over Alta (3-13, 2-2).
Martin was excited to play her old team in a Region 7 contest.
“I was more excited than anything. I was ready to play,” said Martin, who exceeded her average (21.5 ppg) by pouring in 29 points. “I love those girls out there, but I’m ready to compete.
“I think the energy was high, so I was really feeling anxious. I had a lot of adrenaline. I just came in thinking that I’m going to play my game no matter who I’m playing.”
Corner Canyon (15-1, 4-0) already has surpassed last season’s win total of 13, when the Chargers made it to the playoffs but lost to Box Elder in the first round.
“I didn’t even think she was coming. Everybody in the spring was telling me, ‘Oh, she’s coming,’” Corner Canyon coach Jeremy Acker said. “When she enrolled and showed up the first day at school, I just talked to her and said, ‘Hey, what are your goals?‘
“All through fall, we’ve been trying to mesh. She’s done a wonderful job. She doesn’t have a big ego. She plays the game for fun.”
Martin’s arrival wasn’t the only good fortune Corner Canyon had in the transfer department. Jaeden Vaifanua joined the Chargers from Louisiana.
Vaifanua, like Martin, is a junior. She is averaging 18 points and also in possession of a large skill set. Vaifanua scored 11 points, gobbled up 18 rebounds and swatted five Hawks’ shots in Friday’s win.
“Once she came in, it was a game-changer because she’s kind of in that elite level like Kemery,” Acker said. “The two of them combined, it’s just been upward and onward.”
The Chargers coach also points to a group of seniors — Hannah Sanderson, Nicole Critchfield, Annie Bowen and Ashlynn Bird — as the core components to which the newcomers have combined.
“We’ve been working with these girls since they were freshmen,” Acker said. “We’ve got seniors who have been working really hard because we’ve been trying to look at the fact that we can do this.”
CORNER CANYON 76, ALTA 50 <br>• Corner Canyon junior Kemery Martin returns to the Alta High court, where she played for the previous two seasons. <br>• Martin scores 29 points and makes seven assists. Teammate Annie Bowen dishes out eight assists, while junior Jaeden Vaifanua grabs 18 rebounds. <br>• Alta, which falls to 2-2 in region, is paced by 22 points from Kamry Pan, who drained six 3-pointers.