TOPEKA — When Emporia High junior guard Caydrick Bloomquist was introduced before the opening tip of Tuesday night’s matchup with No. 1-ranked Highland Park Tuesday night, a Highland Park student sitting in the stands turned to her mother and said, “Oh my gosh, that boy can shoot.”
That fan and the rest of the Scots would soon find out just how right she was.
Despite battling illness, Bloomquist finished with 20 points on 8-of-17 shooting and made a couple NBA-range 3-pointers to keep the No. 6-ranked Spartans close to the powerful Scots. It was not enough, however, to lift the Spartan boys to victory, as Highland Park turned back every Emporia run in a 73-55 victory for the Scots (7-0, 3-0 Centennial League).
“My shot was feeling good,” Bloomquist said, “but that was a great team we played. We were playing well as a team — I felt good, we all felt good. But they (Highland Park) are a great team, and good teams like that are going to get their shots off.”
Still, Bloomquist’s performance, particularly in the third quarter in which he scored 13 of his points on 5-of-8 shooting, wowed the Highland Park crowd time and time again.
After the Spartans trailed 31-18 at the half, it was Bloomquist who almost single-handedly brought Emporia (3-3, 1-2) back into contention in the third quarter. He opened the period with a three-point shot that set off a 9-0 run for the Spartans out of the break that pulled EHS to within 4 points at 31-27, which forced a Highland Park timeout. As the period went on, Bloomquist hit shots from all over the court — inside and outside — that inched the Spartans closer to the Scots.
Bloomquist’s final 3-pointer of the quarter — and ultimately the game — came with 2:34 left in the period when he curled off a screen, spotted up, and swished a deep three from about 25 feet on the left wing. His last field goal came with a minute left in the third on a jumper that made the score 49-41.
“I thought he played a wonderful game,” EHS coach Rick Bloomquist said. “We need Cayd, and I’m speaking as a coach and not as a a dad when I say I think he’s a special player and a special shooter, and we need to utilize that.”
As quickly as Emporia had cut the deficit in the third quarter though, Highland Park erased it early in the fourth thanks to a 3-pointer from the top of the key by Rico Richardson — one of five that he made — a fast-break layup by Lamont Austin and free throw from Patrick Inyard that made it 55-41. Highland Park’s lead never dropped below 10 points after that.
“It seemed like we would make a run, and they would just keep making shots and making shots,” senior Dillon Cox said. “There was nothing we could do about that. We contested a lot of them, but they just kept making shots.”
One Scot in particular, senior guard Lamont Austin, gave the Spartans fits all night long. The Missouri State signee went 8-of-12 from the field and 4-for-4 from the charity stripe to register a game-high 21 points.
“He makes a big difference. He’s a quick kid and he can handle the ball great,” Caydrick Bloomquist said of Austin. “He’s a great player and a tough kid to guard. Kids like that, you just have to hope they don’t have a great game. I have a lot of respect for him and their team.”
Despite the 18-point loss, the Spartans came away with a silver lining of sorts. Coach Bloomquist said it was the first game in which his team showed signs that it was beginning to develop the type of chemistry the Spartans had strove for all season long.
“I am not displeased with this team at all. As corny as this sounds, I thought we really made a giant step towards being the type of team we’re capable of being,” Rick Bloomquist said. “I saw us play with purpose, I saw us play as a unit working together to accomplish something, I saw us get down and then come back, I saw grit and a little want-to. We just had some fundamental breakdowns inside and sometimes outside that we just couldn’t overcome. This game may be a stepping stone for us, even though it was a loss.”
Richardson added 18 points and Kyle Weems chipped in 15 for Highland Park. Kyle deBlonk was the only other Spartan in double figures with 10 points, and Cox pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds to go with 9 points.