TOPEKA — Heading into halftime of Tuesday night’s game against Highland Park, Nichole Naab figured she had just played a pretty good half of basketball.
The Lady Spartans led the Lady Scots, 38-12, and as far as Naab could tell, her first half had been solid.
Naab didn’t realize until after the game that her performance in the first two quarters against Highland Park was nearly perfect.
The junior guard scored 14 points before halftime by going 5 of 5 from the field and hitting three free throws, with the lone blemish in the stat book a miss on her first free-throw attempt.
“I guess I was shooting pretty good,” Naab said with a laugh. “I knew I made a lot of them (shots), but I didn’t know that I made all of them.”
Naab went on to finish the game with a game-high 20 points to help the Lady Spartans roll Highland Park, 73-32. While Naab did eventually miss from the field, she still turned in an impressive offensive performance to go along with three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
“When we move the ball well and get her open looks, she’s not going to miss very many because she’s just such a good shooter,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said. “She’s spends a lot of time on her own working on her shooting, and it pays off for her. I hollered at her that I thought she turned down shots that I thought she should have taken.”
Emporia (3-3, 1-2 Centennial League) bounced back from last Friday’s 64-62 overtime loss to Topeka West with a defensive performance that continuously harassed the undersized and outmatched Lady Scots (1-6, 0-3). The Lady Spartans forced 30 turnovers while only committing 11 of their own and held Highland Park to just 36 percent (14-of-39) shooting from the field. Also, EHS held the rebounding edge 31-28.
“Whenever we play well, it starts on defense,” junior Sadie Webb said. “When we stop them from getting a basket, we can push the ball up the floor and get a quick, easy basket.”
But behind the shooting efforts of Naab, the EHS offense looked pretty good as well.
The Lady Spartans began the game with a 12-0 run that delivered an early blow to the upset-minded Lady Scots. Emporia continued to increase that lead as the first half wore on, and EHS closed out the remaining 5 minutes, 41 seconds of the second quarter on a 16-4 run that pushed its advantage to 38-12 at the break.
But in the end, it was the defense that sparked the blowout. By the end of the first half, Highland Park had as many turnovers (16) as it did field-goal attempts.
“We really wanted to work on our man defense and our post defense,” Naab said, “ and we did a better job of that tonight.”
In the second half, Emporia continued to cruise, so much so that the Lady Spartans failed to make good on their goal of holding the Lady Scots to 20 points for the entire game.
“Our offense actually contributed to us struggling to do that because we do push the ball so much, and we wanted to do that,” Nienstedt said. “By pushing the ball so much, we increased the number of possessions in the game, and that allowed them more chances to score.”
Joining Naab in double figures were Webb and senior Jessica Muckenthaler with 10 points apiece. Rachael Bachman led the way for EHS with 7 rebounds. Ashley McClelland led Highland Park with 12 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.