The Missouri Western Griffons entered White Auditorium with confidence, an unblemished record and dreams of taking over the No. 1 spot in the nation with a victory over Emporia State.
They left the building with none of the three Saturday night, as the No. 11 Lady Hornets dominated from the start in an 83-63 blowout over the Griffons.
“We were put in our place tonight,” MWSU forward Jill Johnson said, “and it was embarrassing.”
After backing down somewhat in the first bout against Western, the Lady Hornets came out throwing the punches Saturday night.
ESU started hot and kept the momentum in front of 3,831 rowdy fans — the 11th largest ESU women’s crowd and sixth-largest regular-season crowd.
After a 7-7 tie, the Lady Hornets scored 18 of the next 24 points, with Andrea Leiker scoring eight during a 6-minute stretch to help push ESU’s advantage to 25-13.
The Lady Hornets made the run despite having All-American Michelle Stueve sit for three of those minutes.
“When she goes out of the game, there’s other people that have to step up and contribute too,” Leiker said. “Coach (Brandon) Schneider tells me to attack the basket, and that’s what I felt like I was doing.”
ESU (16-4, 9-2 MIAA) only extended the lead from there.
Stueve came on at the end of the first half, contributing a three-point play, four free throws and a jump shot to score nine points in the final 4:06 of the half to help the Lady Hornets to a 44-28 halftime advantage.
“We just wanted to attack them,” Stueve said. “We felt like we were the ones that were attacked when we played the first time. We felt that we could do the same to them.”
The Lady Hornets went back on the offensive after the break, as twos from Genae Glasper, Stueve and Cassondra Boston provided a quick 6-0 burst to push the lead up to 53-31.
“Emporia played harder than we did,” MWSU coach Josh Keister said. “We did a bad job of handling the environment.”
From there, ESU rode its streaky three-point shooting to keep Western at arm’s length.
With six minutes remaining and a 69-47 lead, ESU scored its next 15 points off 3-pointers, with two shots each coming from Carolyn Dorsey and Leiker.
Dorsey’s final three — one from the deep corner with 1:50 remaining — gave the Lady Hornets their largest advantage at 78-53.
ESU finished the game 9-of-16 (56 percent) from beyond the arc.
After scoring 10 bench points in the two teams’ first matchup and relying too much on Stueve offensively down the stretch, ESU had 32 bench points Saturday, which included a career-high 22 from Leiker and eight from Dorsey.
“We can’t beat those kind of (teams) with only one or two individuals contributing,” Schneider said. “For us to achieve anything significant, we need each other a great deal.”
“It definitely does take some pressure off,” Stueve said, “when you have other people knocking down shots and making plays.”
Not that Stueve didn’t have an All-American performance herself.
The junior finished with 26 points and 17 rebounds, making 7 of her 13 shot attempts. She also made 3 of her 6 3-pointers.
Leiker’s 22 points came on a 7-for-11 shooting performance, as she hit 3 of 4 shots from three-point range.
Boston was the other Lady Hornet in double figures with 11.
Western (21-1, 11-1) was led by Inga Buzoka and Tera Petersen, who both had 16 points.
The victory was ESU’s first against a ranked opponent this season. The Lady Hornets did defeat current No. 23 Regis when the team was unranked on Dec. 1.
“(The girls) should feel good about themselves,” Schneider said. “Western is a team that hadn’t been beaten, and a team I’ve been voting No. 1 in the country since about mid-December.”
ESU will travel to Joplin, Mo., to face Missouri Southern on Wednesday.
EMPORIA STATE women 83, MO. WESTERN 63
No. 2 Missouri Western 28 35 — 63
No. 11 Emporia State 44 39 — 83
MISSOURI WESTERN (21-1, 11-1 MIAA)
Buzoka 6-14 3-8 16; Petersen 5-10 2-2 16; Johnson 4-13 2-4 11; Javois 2-5 4-4 8; Woods, 1-1 3-4 5; Davis 1-6 3-3 5; Curry 0-9 2-3 2; Thomas 0-0 0-0 0; Sledge 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-58 19-28 63.
EMPORIA STATE (16-4, 9-2 MIAA)
Stueve 7-13 9-9 26; Leiker 7-11 5-7 22; Boston 4-11 2-3 11; Dorsey 3-5 0-0 8; Glasper 3-4 2-2 8; Henningsen 3-9 0-0 6; Corker 1-3 0-0 2; Svarova 0-2 0-0 0; Stuart 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-60 18-21 83.
3-point goals — Missouri Western 6-17 (Petersen 4-7; Johnson 1-3; Buzoka 1-2; Curry 0-2; Javois 0-3), Emporia State 9-16 (Leiker 3-4; Stueve 3-6; Dorsey 2-3; Boston 1-3). Fouled out — Missouri Western: None; Emporia State: None. Rebounds — Missouri Western 34 (Johnson 9), Emporia State 45 (Stueve 17). Assists — Missouri Western 13 (Davis 6), Emporia State 19 (Stuart 4). Total fouls — Missouri Western 22, Emporia State 23. Att — 3831.
ESU alumnae game
ends in 55-all tie
Tara (Holloway) Churchill led all scorers with 23 points as the black and gray teams tied 55-55 in the annual Lady Hornet alumnae game.
Amanda (Flick) Gutierrez paced the gray team with 14 points.
All 14 players that participated in the game scored.
The former Lady Hornets were recognized during halftime of the ESU/Missouri Western women’s game on Saturday.
GRAY 55, BLACK 55
Gray 25 30 — 55
Black 31 24 — 55
Gray — Nicole Patry 4 0-0 9, Amanda (Flick) Gutierrez 6 2-4 14, Jennifer Perine 5 1-2 11, Deena (Holloway) Wilson 2 1-2 5, Wendy (Redmon) 0-0 8, Pam (Bulson) O'Connor 3 0-0 6, Mary Denning 1 0-0 2 Totals 25 4-8 55.
Black — Hilary Laird 3 0-0 6, Amy Redmon 1 0-0 3, Amanda (Duncan) Cunningham 4 0-0 8, Tara (Holloway) Churchill 9 5-8 23, Shanna (Spann) Perine 1 0-0 2, Sarah (Wells) McCormick 2 2-2 6, Latonya Kindle 3 0-0 7. Totals 23 7-10 55.
Three-point goals — Gray: Patry; Black: Kindle 1, Redmon 1.