That little yellow line did nothing to intimidate the Emporia State women’s basketball shooters.
Though the experimental three-point line placed at 20-feet, 6-inches was supposed to limit the outside shots being made, it wasn’t very effective in the Lady Hornets’ 89-62 exhibition victory over Tabor Monday night at White Auditorium.
ESU hit nearly everything from long-range early, draining 9 of their first 12 three-point attempts despite being backed up nine inches from the previous arc.
“The guards really stepped up and knocked a bunch of threes in,” ESU forward Casey Henningsen said. “That really helped set the tone.”
Tabor actually grabbed an early 4-3 lead on a jumper from Emily Vogts before ESU went on its shooting streak.
After consecutive jumpers from Henningsen and Cassondra Boston, 24 of the next 30 Lady Hornet points came by the three-point shot.
Andrea Leiker, Lacy Corker and Michelle Stueve all had a pair of treys during the stretch as ESU extended its advantage to 37-13 in just 10 minutes of play.
“I think we’re really capable of making people pay for playing zone against us,” ESU coach Brandon Schneider said.
The Lady Hornets ended the half — appropriately — on a three-point shot from the corner by Boston that made it 52-27.
ESU entered the break with 10 combined three-pointers from five different shooters.
The second half started just as well for the Lady Hornets, as Stueve, Dorsey and Jamie Augustyn all contributed consecutive three-point plays to cap a 15-0 run out of intermission.
Dorsey was the catalyst in the second 20 minutes for ESU after making just 2-of-7 shots in the first half.
She said the difference was a halftime pep talk from teammate Henningsen.
“I was a little disappointed, and Casey came out and kind of motivated me,” Dorsey said. “I just felt like I needed to step it up. We had a little talk. She told me I could do a lot of things, and that I was going to have a great second half.”
The senior guard did just that, scoring 13 points in the second half on 4-of-6 shooting. She finished with a team-high 17 points in just 23 minutes of action.
ESU lost some concentration late, as Tabor outscored the Lady Hornets 35-22 after the half-opening run.
Calling his team’s defensive performance “soft,” Schneider said his team would have to improve before Friday’s season-opener in the Candlewood Suites Classic against a physical Cameron team.
Dorsey agreed.
“One of our goals coming in was to play a full 40-minute game defensively and rebounding-wise,” Dorsey said. “I think we got away from that a little bit.”
ESU only outrebounded Tabor 44-39 despite a significant height advantage inside. The Bluejays also forced 13 steals to the Lady Hornets’ 8.
“We did kind of lose focus,” Henningsen said, “and didn’t accomplish a lot of the things that we had hoped to.”
Henningsen and Stueve both contributed 14 points for ESU. In her first home game, Boston, a freshman point guard, added 12, while Leiker hit double figures with 10.
ESU senior guard Tegan Stuart left the game in the second half with a knee injury, but she is expected to play in the regular-season opener.
The Lady Hornets finished the exhibition 2-0 after posting a 64-59 victory last week against Kansas State in Manhattan.