MANHATTAN — The Emporia High girls needed something — anything — to give them some spark of energy Friday night against Manhattan, and the Lady Spartans found it in the form of a relentless, pressuring defense.
The EHS girls forced Manhattan into 13 second-half turnovers after switching to full-court defense midway through the third period, resulting in 11 points off turnovers for Emporia on its way to a 47-39 victory over the Lady Indians.
“The kids cranked up the pressure defensively and created some turnovers, and that was really key — that was the key,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said. “We didn’t play with that kind of intensity, that kind of purpose, that kind of passion for a long time, but when we needed it, we were able to turn it up a notch.”
The Lady Spartans led by one at halftime, 22-21, and quickly fell behind, 26-23, after Manhattan went on a 5-1 scoring burst out of the break. That’s when Nienstedt made the decision to switch to full-court defense.
“It wasn’t so much that I had a great feeling that it would work,” he said, “but we needed to do something to create some energy for ourselves. Motion sometimes creates emotion, and we got into the game more when we picked up our tempo defensively.”
Almost immediately, the Lady Spartans (11-7, 5-6 Centennial League) saw positive results.
For the last 3 minutes, 46 seconds of the of the third quarter, Emporia forced six Lady Indian turnovers, including a stretch that saw Manhattan (11-7, 6-5) turn it over on four consecutive possessions while Emporia regained the lead at 28-26 off a driving lay-in by Alli Armitage, a put-back by Lindy Arndt off a Lexi Hileman miss and a free throw by Armitage.
“It (the pressure defense) worked really well,” Arndt said. “We got up and guarded the ball-handler and forced turnovers. We got points off turnovers that that were huge.”
The game was tied at 30 at the end of the third period, and for the first 4 minutes of the fourth quarter, the lead changed hands three times until a free throw by Manhattan’s Lauren DeLoach tied the game at 36 with 3:34 left.
That’s when Emporia made it’s final push.
Jessica Muckenthaler and Sadie Webb each sank a pair free throws to give EHS the lead at 40-36, and after a free throw by Manhattan’s Kari Smith, the Emporia defense again came away several huge steals.
Muckenthaler first stepped in front of a pass intended for Christy Nelson and took it all the way to the basket to give Emporia a 42-37 lead. About a minute later, Muckenthaler, who finished with a game-high 12 points, stepped in front of another pass to halt a Manhattan possession.
A Sarah Couchman two for Manhattan and a Muckenthaler free throw made it 43-39 with 1 minute left, and then Arndt got Emporia’s final steal of the game when she ripped the ball away from Nelson and passed the ball off to Nichole Naab, who went on the make two free throws to put the game out of reach.
“Nic sat for a while there in the fourth quarter, and she hadn’t done anything wrong,” Nienstedt said, “but we had built some momentum with the kids we had in. But I knew we wanted to get her back in the game late, because she’s such a good foul shooter, and she made some big ones for us.”
Down the stretch, the Lady Spartans made 9 of 11 free throws to ice the game. In all, Emporia made more free throws (17) than Manhattan attempted (12).
“We attacked the basket harder,” said Webb, who finished with 10 points. “Whenever we found the holes on offense, we took it right to them.”
The victory was the second in a grueling week for the Lady Spartans, who upset No. 4-ranked Washburn Rural on Tuesday and then lost a heartbreaker to No. 2-ranked Junction City on Thursday, 46-42, before getting the win over Manhattan.
“It was a really big week for us, especially considering the teams that we played,” Webb said. “It’s nice to come away with two wins when we played such tough teams.”
Centennial League
Friday at Manhattan
Emporia 9 13 8 17 — 47
Manhattan 9 12 9 9 — 39
EMPORIA (11-7, 5-6 Centennial League)
J. Muckenthaler 2-7 8-10 12, A. Armitage 1-3 1-2 3, R. Bachman 2-3 2-2 7, S. Webb 3-7 4-5 10, N. Naab 1-6 2-2 5, L. Arndt 3-6 0-1 6, L. Hileman 2-7 0-0 4. Totals 14-39 17-22 47.
MANHATTAN (11-7, 6-5)
L. DeLoach 2-5 1-2 5, C. Nelson 4-10 0-0 9, K. Smith 4-10 3-6 11, S. Couchman 4-5 0-0 8, E. Davenport 1-2 0-0 2, C. Carmichael 0-2 0-0 0, S. Thomas 0-3 0-0 0, S. Lester 1-2 2-2 4. Totals 16-39 6-12 39.
3-point goals — Emporia 2-7 (Muckenthaler 0-1, Armitage 0-1, Bachman 1-1, Naab 1-3, Arndt 0-1), Manhattan 1-7 (DeLoach 0-1, Nelson 1-4, Thomas 0-1, Lester 0-1). Rebounds — Emporia 20 (Hileman 4), Manhattan 31 (Smith 8). Assists — Emporia 3 (Three tied at 1), Manhattan 9 (DeLoach 3). Turnovers — Emporia 9, Manhattan 19. Total fouls — Emporia 10, Manhattan 14. Fouled out — None.