The Emporia State men’s basketball team once again showed it could make the necessary plays down the stretch to win a close game.
The problem is, if you listen to the Hornets, it never should have been a close game to begin with.
ESU played tough in the final minutes to secure an 85-79 victory over Avila on Tuesday, but it wasn’t enough to please many of the players who believed the game could have been decided earlier.
“I guess you could say (playing well late) is our M.O., but that’s what we don’t want our M.O. to be,” ESU guard Donta Watson said. “When we have a team down 18 points in the first half, we need to finish the game off. That’s where our team is struggling right now.”
The Hornets’ struggles came after a fast start, where ESU looked like it would run away from NAIA Avila with hot shooting.
A Wes Book 3-pointer from the right corner capped a 10-0 ESU run, giving the team a 23-12 lead with 11:41 remaining in the first half.
Consecutive treys by Watson and Tegtmeier extended the advantage, making it 41-23 with 6:08 left in the half. ESU made its first five three-point attempts and also 13 of its first 18 shots (72 percent) overall.
“We hit a ton of shots early, built up a big lead,” ESU coach David Moe said, “and then we got careless.”
Troy Valencia’s driving layup completed a 10-0 Avila run in the final minutes before intermission. The Eagles trailed just 47-40 at the break.
“From that point on, we were never able to gain control of the game back,” Moe said. “They had control of the tempo and were more aggressive than we were.”
Brett Schmitt grabbed the lead in the second half for Avila, knocking in a three to make it 71-70 with 5:21 remaining.
Watson hit his fourth 3-pointer two minutes later as ESU regained the advantage, 75-73.
The Hornets made the plays late to hold the lead.
After a Book lay-in made it 79-76, Tegtmeier stepped in front of Terrell Johnson on the defensive end to draw a crucial charging call.
“He got me a couple times earlier in the game, and I didn’t fall down,” Tegtmeier said. “On that one, I knew I had to fall down.”
Tegtmeier was rewarded seconds later on the offensive end, receiving a baseline pass from DeAndre Townsend and finishing with a layup to push the lead to 81-76.
Tavan Sills’ three cut the advantage to 83-79 with 25.2 seconds left, but Avila failed to score after that.
“I don’t know if we really wanted a test like that tonight,” Tegtmeier said. “That’s not really what we were planning on.”
ESU did have to adjust without the services of Ed Desir. The 6-foot-8 forward — who had a career-high 14 rebounds in the last game against Central Oklahoma — has a swollen knee and is listed as day-to-day.
“It seems like whenever we get beat on defense, Ed’s there to block a shot,” Tegtmeier said. “But he’s not a one-man team. The rest of us should have shown up tonight, and we didn’t.”
The Hornets were outrebounded, 37-25, in Desir’s absence.
Tegtmeier led ESU with 17 points, while Watson and Book both added 16 apiece.
Townsend (13) and Andrew Davison (11) also hit double figures.
The Hornets finished the game an impressive 33 of 55 from the floor (60 percent).
The victory keeps ESU undefeated on the season, improving the team’s record to 6-0. The Hornets are unranked but did receive votes in the latest NABC Top 25 poll.