With her team holding a 42-31 lead and seeking to knock off Blue Valley, the fifth-ranked team in Class 6A, Emporia High senior guard Jessica Muckenthaler provided the Lady Spartans with the signature play of what would become Emporia High’s signature win on the young season.
Late in the third quarter, Muckenthaler picked the pocket of Blue Valley’s Mindy Smith, knocking the ball into the Lady Spartan backcourt. Both players gave chase for the loose ball, but as they neared the ball, Muckenthaler dived head first in front of Smith and came up on her back with the ball in hand.
She tossed it back to teammate Rachael Bachman, and though the Lady Spartans failed to score on the possession, the play from Muckenthaler typified Emporia High’s effort at times in a 57-44 victory over Blue Valley in the Paul Terry Classic.
“I felt like we were kind of struggling at that point,” said Muckenthaler, who finished the game with 8 points, 5 steals and 3 assists. “I just felt like we needed to finish strong, and I was going to do my best to get to the ball.”
EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said Muckenthaler’s all-out effort provided his team with the spark it needed to knock off Blue Valley.
“She (Muckenthaler) is an awfully good defensive player, and such a tough kid,” Nienstedt said. “The play where she dove, that’s an inspiration for everybody wearing a white jersey. That’s just tremendous effort.
“We did the type of things that it takes to win in a game like that against a quality, quality team.”
Emporia (2-2) led 42-32 at the end of the third period, and then Blue Valley’s Taylor Hanson made things interesting with two consecutive 3-pointers less than 30 seconds into the fourth quarter to drop the EHS lead to four at 42-38.
Bachman hit a jumper to end the momentary Blue Valley’s scoring outburst, and then Muckenthaler continued her heady play by picking off a pass intended for Hanson and taking a charge on consecutive Lady Tiger possessions. A driving layup and free throw from Sadie Webb off a Bachman miss pushed Emporia’s lead to 47-38 with 5:44 remaining.
From there, the Lady Spartans closed out the game by going 10-of-16 from the free-throw line.
“(Free-throw shooting) helps a lot. It gives you more of a cushion,” Muckenthaler said. “It just feels good to make free throws and ice the game.”
While free throws helped ice the game late, the Lady Spartans were on fire early on. After Alli Armitage missed Emporia’s first shot, Webb completed a three-point play to give the Lady Spartans a 3-0 lead and start a streak of five consecutive made shots that was capped by another Webb shot, this time a turnaround jumper.
Bachman scored four points during the stretch and Nichole Naab added a free-throw line jumper as well, helping Emporia jump out to an 11-3 lead halfway into the first period.
“We came out really strong,” Bachman said. “We usually come out not as strong as we do toward the end of the game, but today, coach told us to try real hard at the beginning. We came out ready to go.”
Blue Valley regrouped and pulled to within four at 14-10, taking advantage of an EHS scoring drought that was the complete opposite of how the Lady Spartans began the game. Emporia made one field goal from the 4:21 mark of the first quarter to the 5:31 point of the second period, allowing the Lady Tigers the opportunity to crawl back into the game.
“We got a little bit away from what had got us there,” Nienstedt said. “There’s a danger of coming out hot, and that is you think you can make everything. Every kid is probably going to take a shot that is a heat-check type of shot before long, and then the next thing you know, you’re not shooting well anymore. We’ve got to be more poised than that in the future.”
The Lady Spartans answered, though, with a 10-3 scoring spurt that pushed their advantage back to double figures at 24-13, and Emporia took a 26-17 lead into halftime. Though Blue Valley made several runs at the Lady Spartans in the second half, Emporia repeatedly turned back the Lady Tigers with a defense that forced 17 Blue Valley turnovers and allowed the Lady Tigers to shoot just 31 percent for the game.
Naab led Emporia with 16 points while Webb chipped in 10. Hanson led all scorers with 19 points, which included five 3-pointers.
Afterward, Bachman said the Lady Spartans were excited to get such a quality win to help them push their record back to the break-even point after starting the season 0-2.
“Coach was talking about this as a signature win,” Bachman said. “He said this was something where people will say, ‘Oh, Emporia, they pulled it out.’ People didn’t think we could do it, but we pulled it off. It’s great to be .500 and not have a losing record anymore.”