When Rachelle VanGundy enters a game off the bench, she knows what’s expected of her.
“To keep the intensity and the energy going, to give that extra spark to keep up our intensity, to stay focused and pump everybody up,” VanGundy said. “Just do what is best for the team at that point.”
Through three games this season, VanGundy has filled that role well for the Emporia High girls basketball team.
As a reserve guard, the junior is averaging 7.7 points per game off the bench, good for fourth on the team out of the players that have played in all three games.
Her contributions, along with the rest of the Emporia High bench, have helped keep the No. 2-ranked (Class 5A) Lady Spartans undefeated on the season at 3-0. The players off the EHS bench are contributing 25 percent of the team’s offense, and more than that, they’re giving coach Bill Nienstedt some reliable options during the game on the offensive and defensive end without much dropoff.
The three biggest contributors have been VanGundy, junior Hilary Heinrichs and senior Brittany Meza, a transfer from Olpe.
In addition to VanGundy’s scoring, the Lady Spartans have enjoyed quality minutes from Heinrichs on the defensive end — she’s averaging three rebounds per game — and a spark on offense from Meza, who spells starting point guard Alli Armitage when she needs a break.
“They give us some flexibility,” Nienstedt said.
As VanGundy says, they’re just doing what’s being asked of them.
“I think all of us have filled our roles and helped keep the team successful,” VanGundy said.
But a lot more is about to be asked of VanGundy and the rest of the Lady Spartans’ bench.
EHS opens Centennial League play Friday with a home game against Topeka High, and with the physicality that teams like Topeka High, Hayden, Seaman and Washburn Rural play with, Nienstedt said the margin for error for the entire team — and especially the bench — would get smaller and smaller.
“As we start conference play this week, the teams are going to be good enough that every night, you’ll only be as good as the kid who struggles the most that night,” Nienstedt said, “and that means your bench is going to be more and more important than they had been.”
It starts with Topeka High (1-1, 1-1 Centennial League), a team that gave EHS fits last season. Topeka High beat the Lady Spartans, 63-58, in Topeka before EHS came through with a 61-57 double-overtime victory in Emporia.
But this year’s Topeka High squad is nothing like last year’s senior-laden team. Instead of Ivy Morrison, Jackie Hoyt and Myah Sprew — all experienced seniors — the Lady Trojans typically play four freshmen and have just one senior on the team.
However, those freshmen can play, and they’re led by Jessica Blake, who is averaging 22 points per game.
The Emporia High boys also split with the Trojans last season, losing 74-64 in Topeka and winning 73-67 in Emporia.
The sixth-ranked Spartans (2-2) are coming off a third-place showing in last weekend’s Paul Terry Classic in which the Spartans got victories over Olathe East and Centennial League foe Junction City, though the win over Junction City doesn’t count in the league standings.
EHS got big contributions all weekend from its three returning starters from last year: Caydrick Bloomquist, Troy Pierce and Taylor Euler.
Bloomquist was named to the All-Tournament team after averaging 22.7 points in the tournament, including a tournament-record 16 3-pointers. Pierce was a rebounding machine, grabbing 8.7 rebounds a game, and Euler hit numerous timely shots, whether it be on drives to the basket or jumpers from the outside.
EHS coach Rick Bloomquist said he saw his team improve during the Paul Terry Classic, and expected that to continue against Centennial League competition, starting with Topeka High (1-1, 1-1).
“We got Taylor and Caydrick and Troy going,” Bloomquist said after Emporia’s 38-37 victory over Junction City, “and we need to have those three producing if we want to be successful. Their leadership showed, and we have to have that.”