The Emporia State-Washburn women’s basketball rivalry will be more than a game this time around.
This year it will be an event.
The hoopla will be in Emporia on Saturday, as CSTV will be at White Auditorium to nationally telecast the matchup between No. 3 Washburn and No. 9 Emporia State.
It will be the first time ever a regular-season MIAA game has been nationally televised.
Tipoff is set for 11 a.m. Saturday.
“We’re all really looking forward to it. It’s a big event and a big game,” ESU guard Carolyn Dorsey said. “We’re excited to get back out there and show the team that we have been in the past.”
Though the game had great significance before, it has even added more weight for the ESU women in the last week.
The Lady Hornets come in having lost two consecutive games, surrendering upsets to 12-9 Central Missouri on the road and also 9-13 Pittsburg State at White Auditorium.
Now, ESU needs a victory not only for confidence, but also to keep its head above water in fighting for an NCAA postseason berth.
“Obviously, it’s a game that we want to play well in and have to play well in now,” ESU forward Casey Henningsen said. “We’ve kind of put ourselves into a corner.”
ESU didn’t put its best foot forward in the first meeting between the two schools, dropping a 69-62 decision to WU on Jan. 3 in Topeka.
The Lady Hornets had 10 first-half turnovers and suffered from timid play on the offensive end, scoring less than 70 points for the first time all season.
Dorsey said ESU was looking to deliver that kind of attacking style on Saturday.
“This is going to be a real good chance to show them that we’re going to come at them just as much, if not more, than they came at us the first time,” she said.
Washburn, meanwhile, enters the game with only two losses — with both of those coming against No. 2 Missouri Western.
The Lady Blues come in ranked first in the MIAA in offense (78 points per game), defense (52.7 points allowed pg), scoring margin (+25.0 ppg), field-goal percentage (46.2 percent), field-goal percentage defense (35.9 percent) and 3-pointers made (7.54 per game).
“We know on our best performance night, with everybody contributing,” Dorsey said, “that it’s going to be a really good game.”
This is the 13th time both teams have been nationally ranked in the matchup and the 10th time in 11 meetings that both schools have been ranked in the top 10.
Fewer than 800 general admission tickets remain for the game, which also has been deemed a “Blackout Saturday.”
The ticket booth at White Auditorium will be open at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. ESU students that have a Hornet Card can start having them scanned at 8:30 as well.
Gates into the arena will open at 9:30, with the first 400 ESU students receiving Hornet Net Heads courtesy of the ESU Memorial Union and ESU Athletics.
The national-television presence will mean more and longer media timeouts during the game. One media timeout will be added to each half.
CSTV, the first 24-hour hour college sports network, will televise six total Division-II games this season. Though it is not yet available on local cable, it can be found on channel 610 for DirecTV subscribers and channel 152 for Dish Network customers.
The game also will be televised on MetroSports in the Kansas City area.