Brandon Schneider believed some eyebrows were raised after No. 9 Emporia State’s loss to 12-9 Central Missouri on Saturday.
The reaction could be a whole lot different when the rest of the conference picks up their newspapers today.
Pittsburg State women 65, Emporia State 62. At White Auditorium.
“Now people are laughing at you a little bit,” the ESU coach said. “I don’t think we want to be a joke to anybody. People see the scores and there’s a chuckle there. That’s not fun for anybody.”
Indeed, if Saturday’s performance could be labeled as disappointing, then Wednesday’s outing against 9-13 PSU could almost be classified as embarrassing.
For the first time in Schneider’s nine seasons as coach, ESU lost to a team with a losing record in White Auditorium.
“I don’t really know how to explain the feeling,” ESU junior Michelle Stueve said. “It’s just frustrating. We feel like we really blew it last weekend on Saturday. It just feels like another blow to us.”
After surrendering a 10-point lead in the second half against Central, the Lady Hornets played their sloppiest half of the season in the opening 20 minutes Wednesday.
ESU fell behind 33-23, had 13 turnovers, shot 27 percent, scored only one field goal in the final 10 minutes and threw it away so often that Stueve yelled, “Let’s get a shot!” to her teammates.
“There were five or six possessions — maybe even more — that we didn’t put a shot in the air before it went out of bounds,” Stueve said. “They weren’t really forcing turnovers; we were just shooting ourself in the foot.”
A factor in ESU’s poor play was the third foul on point guard Cassondra Boston, who was forced to the bench for the final 9:10 of the half.
Backup point guards Tegan Stuart and Lacy Corker had trouble taking care of the ball behind her, as they combined for seven turnovers in the first half and 10 overall.
“It’s not a position either one of them are real comfortable with,” Schneider said. “We try to protect them and hide them as much as we can, but when (Boston) is on the bench with three fouls, options are getting pretty thin.”
Through it all, ESU still had a chance to win it late.
Following a resurgence from Casey Henningsen — she scored 12 points in the first 11:21 of the second half — the Lady Hornets made their move. Capped by a steal and three-point play from Stueve, ESU produced a 10-0 run in the second half to tie it at 52 with 7:53 remaining.
It was then that PSU’s Anna Nimz took over the game for her team.
Though Schneider shuffled at least four different defenders on her, none seemed to slow down the 5-foot-10 senior guard. Nimz hit a pair of baseline jumpers to push the lead back to 56-52, then later hit a pull-up jumper over fresh defender Jamie Augustyn to bump the advantage back to 60-58.
“It seemed like she hit everything she shot up,” Stueve said. “She was a huge factor in the win.”
“She played like a player that didn’t have anything to lose,” Schneider said.
Boston’s driving layup closed the gap to 63-62 with 1:02 left, but Nikki Pierce responded on the next possession with a leaning jumper that rolled in to push the lead back to three with 35 seconds remaining.
Following a Boston missed layup, Nimz missed the front end of a one-and-one to give ESU one final opportunity.
Stuart’s 24-footer at the buzzer came up 2 feet short, and the Gorillas celebrated their upset with screams and hugs on the court.
“I think this is probably one of their better nights of play,” Stueve said. “You’ve got to give the credit to them. They brought it to us, and we basically just took it.”
Though PSU (10-13, 5-10 MIAA) entered the game 219th in Division II in rebounding margin, it didn’t have any such problems on the glass Wednesday night. The Gorillas out-rebounded ESU 38-28 while making 15 of 26 shots (58 percent) in the second half.
Stueve led the Lady Hornets, scoring 20 points to go along with 10 rebounds.
Henningsen bounced back after scoring seven points or less in her previous five games. The senior forward finished with 17 points, making 7 of her 8 shots from the floor in just 21 minutes of action.
Boston also added double figures with 11 points.
ESU (17-6, 10-4) was hurt inside by the absence of starter Genae Glasper, who was held out by the medical staff because of an undisclosed illness. Her status is day-to-day.
Nimz had 20 points on 9-of-18 shooting for PSU, while Gilbert chipped in 16.
The Lady Hornets will renew their rivalry with Washburn in an 11 a.m. game Saturday at White Auditorium. The contest will be nationally-televised on CSTV.
PITTSBURG ST. women 65, EMPORIA STATE 62
Pittsburg State 33 32 — 65
No. 9 Emporia State 23 39 — 62
PITTSBURG STATE (10-13, 5-10 MIAA)
Nimz 9-18 1-2 20; Gilbert 8-14 0-0 16; Pierce 5-7 2-2 12; Klein 3-6 2-4 8; Hinkin 3-6 0-0 7; Sloan 0-1 1-2 1; Patry 0-4 1-2 1; Curtis 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 28-59 7-12 65.
EMPORIA STATE (17-6, 10-4 MIAA)
Stueve 6-13 5-5 20; Henningsen 7-8 3-6 17; Boston 5-14 0-0 11; Leiker 3-8 0-2 7; Dorsey 2-5 0-0 5; Svarova 1-3 0-0 2; Stuart 0-3 0-0 0; Corker 0-1 0-0 0; Augustyn 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 24-57 8-13 62.
3-point goals — Pittsburg State 2-8 (Nimz 1-2; Hinkin, 1-3; Patry 0-1; Curtis 0-2). Emporia State 6-18 (Stueve 3-7; Leiker 1-1; Boston 1-5; Dorsey 1-1; Stuart 0-2; Corker 0-1; Augustyn 0-1). Fouled out — Pittsburg State: None. Emporia State: Boston. Rebounds — Pittsburg State 38 (Hinkin 7; Pierce 7), Emporia State 28 (Stueve 10). Assists — Pittsburg State 13 (Nimz 7), Emporia State 15 (Leiker 5). Total fouls — Pittsburg State 14, Emporia State 16. Att — 2010.