The Emporia High girls basketball team faced a nightmare schedule last week and came away from it with a 2-1 record, and now it’s the EHS boys teams’ turn for a frighteningly challenging slate of games this week.
After the Lady Spartans got big wins over No. 4 (Class 6A) Washburn Rural and Manhattan — while dropping a four-point heartbreaker to No. 2 (Class 6A) Junction City — the No. 7-ranked (Class 5A) Spartan boys square off against a trio of ranked opponents this week
It all starts with tonight’s matchup against No. 5 (Class 4A) Hayden, followed by a make-up game on Thursday at No. 8 (Class 6A) Leavenworth and then a rematch with the top-ranked team in Class 5A, Highland Park.
“Welcome to 5A and 6A basketball,” EHS coach Rick Bloomquist said. “It’s been this way all year. None of our games have been easy. Anybody we play in our league and on our level, there are no gimmees.
“With the parity of high school basketball today, especially on the 5A and 6A levels where you have so many kids to choose from, the schedule is no different from the last week or the week before.”
But first things first, and that’s a rematch at home with Hayden, which beat the Spartans, 60-53, back on Jan. 30. During that game, Emporia saw a 10-point second-half lead slip away mainly because of poor interior defense. Hayden out-rebounded the Spartans, 34-20, and got a combined 47 points from big men Joe Flynn, Andrew Taylor and Caleb Dishman.
“We weren’t physical,” Bloomquist said. “We can’t have their football players be better than our football players, and that’s how we’re going to approach it.”
The earlier loss to the Wildcats was the second consecutive setback for the EHS boys, who decided afterward that changes — most notably in attitude — needed to be made.
“All of us hate to lose,” sophomore guard Taylor Euler said. “After that loss, we huddled up together and said, ‘We’re tired of losing, so we need to change some things.’ In that game (against Hayden), we didn’t have it (chemistry), and everybody was trying to do things on their own.”
The changes in attitude worked, as the Spartans (11-6, 6-5 Centennial League) rattled off five victories in a row before dropping Friday night’s matchup with Manhattan, 62-54.
“The change came in the head, which affected the heart, which affected the feet,” Bloomquist said. “We made a nice change.”
Now comes the chance at once again proving those changes were not fleeting. The Spartans have already avenged the first of those back-to-back losses with a 62-54 victory at home a week ago over rival Washburn Rural. Now comes Hayden (13-5, 7-4), which used its size to its advantage against a somewhat timid EHS squad the last time out.
“I think they’ll be the same kind of team — they’ll try to bang it inside on us,” Euler said. “But we’re a tougher team and a smarter team since we last played them. I honestly think we’re a totally different team.”
For the EHS girls (11-7, 5-6), the formula for slowing Hayden tonight seems so simple — play better defense than the last time the two teams matched up.
In one of the more frustrating defensive showings of the season in a 62-46 Lady Wildcat victory back on Jan. 30, the Lady Spartans allowed Hayden to start the game a perfect 10-for-10 from the field.
Obviously, the goal this time around is to play defense — any defense at all.
“We didn’t play good defense, and it’s hard to get into the game when they make everything they shoot,” senior guard Jessica Muckenthaler said. “If we get in their face, it’ll be better for us this time.”
After getting through last week’s brutal schedule with a couple of big wins, Muckenthaler said now was not the time to relax, especially against the big and powerful Lady Wildcats (13-5, 9-2).
“We can’t do that,” she said. “We can’t look at any game as being easy.
“Last week was difficult, but we all played well every single day. If we can carry that on, we should be OK.”