EHS squads gear up for clash with Blue Jays
Thursday, February 15, 2007
When Emporia High senior Rachael Bachman and her teammates line up to face Junction City tonight, Bachman will see more than the No. 2-ranked team in Class 6A in the Lady Blue Jays.
She’ll see some old friends, too.
Bachman has been a lifelong friend of Junction City sisters Alex and Dani Hoover, as the girls grew up together since their fathers are business partners.
“We’ve known each other since we’ve been born,” Bachman said. “It makes me a little more nervous playing them just because we are friends.”
The Hoover sisters just happen to be stars for undefeated Junction City, which is 15-0 overall and 8-0 in the Centennial League.
As one would expect from sisters that have played basketball together for years, Bachman said Alex and Dani are hard to play against simply because one is so in-tune to what the other one is doing at all times.
“They just work really well together. They always find each other,” Bachman said. “They know what the other one can do, and they set each other up really well.”
While the Hoovers are often the catalyst for their team, its not like the other Lady Jays are exactly slouches.
Take, for instance, Junction City’s 64-41 victory over Hayden last Friday. While Dani, a senior, led the way in scoring with 14 points and Alex, a junior, chipped in 12, seven other players scored for Junction City, including four that scored at least five points.
“Their other kids are awfully good players,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said. “It’s not like those two (the Hoovers) are averaging 30 points a game and the others are averaging one. They have a lot of kids that can get anywhere from six to 10 or 12 points a night.”
The Lady Spartans are coming off perhaps their biggest win of the year, a 44-42 victory over No. 4-ranked (Class 6A) Washburn Rural on Tuesday night. Emporia fought back from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to stun the Junior Blues, giving the EHS girls at least one victory in a week in which they play two top-5 teams and another — Manhattan — that was ranked earlier this season.
“We knew we’d have to perform well coming into this week,” Bachman said. “We’ve got the first win, now there are two more to go.”
However, Nienstedt cautioned against looking in the rearview mirror at the Rural game for too long.
“You’re only as good as the game you’re playing in,” he said. “We’ve got to set our focus on Junction City and Junction City only.”
On the boys side, the No. 8-ranked (Class 5A) Spartans (10-5, 5-4) will look to continue their recent run of hot play, as they try to make it five wins in a row when they face the Blue Jays (7-8, 3-5).
During Emporia’s four-game winning streak, junior guard Caydrick Bloomquist has been a scoring machine, averaging 24.5 points a contest.
“My teammates are doing a great job helping me get open, and I give a lot of credit to them,” Bloomquist said. “The shots I’ve been taking, I’ve been much more selective. I’ve been taking a lot more higher-percentage shots, and that has helped out a lot.
“Everyone has worked together, and I’ve gotten shots because of it.”
Tonight’s contests against Junction City are make-ups games that were supposed to be played in mid-January but were postponed because of a winter storm that hit the area. That means both the boys and girls squads will be playing three games in four days this week.
Bloomquist, though, said he didn’t believe the Spartans would suffer any negative effects of the heavy schedule.
“Fatigue could be a factor,” he said, “but I think we’re in good enough shape now to where it’s not going to bother us.”