That the Emporia High boys have had just three days to rest since playing three games in three days in last week’s Paul Terry Classic does not concern coach Rick Bloomquist that much.
Instead, the fact that the Spartans have had just one practice since opening the season with a 2-1 record in the tournament, which included Saturday’s 65-54 loss to Blue Valley West in the championship game, weighs more on Bloomquists’ mind. With the Spartans back in action tonight against Topeka High, the quick turnaround has left little chance for Emporia to work out the kinks that arose in the first three games of the season.
“It’s not real ideal to have a game on Tuesday after you’ve played a three-day tournament, but we have to do it,” he said. “Practice time is more important in this aspect than rest. I don’t get the chance to fix some of the things we need to fix from the tournament. That bothers me more than anything.”
Among the problems Bloomquist said need fixing were the Spartans’ interior defense and rebounding. The Spartans fared quite well in the first two games of the Paul Terry Classic against Bellevue (Neb.) East and Olathe East, two teams the Spartans had a height advantage on. But against Blue Valley West in the championship game, Emporia was out-rebounded 31-22 — including 16-7 on the offensive glass — and allowed the Jaguars’ Robert Lewandowski to score a game-high 21 points, mostly on offensive put-backs.
“We did a poor job of defending the post. We talk about it in practice all the time, but we can’t emulate it that much,” Bloomquist said. “We didn’t rebound well at all either. We didn’t block out.”
But it wasn’t just defense.
“Offensively, I want us to be more in sync,” Bloomquist added. “We spent more time (Monday) at practice on offense than anything else because we just need to be more in sync.”
The No. 6-ranked (Class 5A) Spartans could certainly have used the practice time considering tonight’s opponent, Centennial League foe Topeka High. The Trojans (1-1) were ranked fifth in Class 6A in the preseason, and the game will be played at Topeka High’s infamous “Dungeon” gymnasium.
Led by All-State senior forward Chris White-Ready, the Trojans return four starters from last year’s State tournament team. While Topeka High is coming off a 74-66 loss to Washburn Rural last week, Bloomquist said he was still very aware of the Trojans’ capabilities.
“Chris White-Ready is probably one of the top 10 basketball players in the state. They’ve got four starters back off a team that went to the State tournament,” he said. “We’ve got all the odds against us. One league game isn’t going to make or break this season, but I just want to see how our players are going to react.”
Weighing in the Spartans’ favor could be the play of their guards so far this season, as well as the emergence of junior center Troy Pierce. Pierce is averaging 12.7 points and 10.3 rebounds so far, while the three EHS starting guards — Caydrick Bloomquist, Kyle deBlonk and Taylor Euler — are averaging 12.7, 9.7 and 14.3 points per game.
Also, the Spartan boys will be playing for the right to retain the Dean Smith trophy, which goes to the winner of the Topeka High-Emporia matchup each year. Emporia has won the trophy the last three years.
The Emporia High girls possibly are in an even less enviable position than the Spartan boys, as the Lady Spartans have played just one game so far this season, a 36-34 road loss to Shawnee Mission East last Thursday. The Lady Spartans will take on Topeka High with the focus being heavily on handling defensive pressure, something that plagued Emporia (0-1) against Shawnee Mission West.
“We’ve got to understand that we’ve got to break pressure as a team,” said EHS coach Bill Nienstedt, who saw his team commit 21 turnovers against Shawnee Mission East’s pressure defense. “Everybody has a job to do; it can’t just be the responsibility of the girl with the ball. Hopefully, we have a better understanding of that now.”
The Topeka High girls are 1-1 this year after a 55-33 loss to Washburn Rural and are led by senior Jackie Hoyt, who scored 14 points in the loss to the Junior Blues.
Nienstedt said he expected a physical game from the Lady Trojans, which will give his team the chance to quickly prove it had learned from its struggles in the Shawnee Mission East loss.
“We played hard (against Shawnee Mission East), we just weren’t physical. If we could learn to do both, it would be very helpful,” he said. “We weren’t prepared to need to be as physical as we needed to be, and Topeka High is very physical, so we’ll need to be physical with them.”