With its 74-46 victory over Olathe North Friday night in the second round of the Ralph Miller Classic in Chanute, the Emporia High boys basketball team made a happy man out of even its harshest critic — the Spartans’ coach, Rick Bloomquist.
“I’m usually more critical of my team, but they really even impressed me tonight with how they played,” Bloomquist said. “They played a beautiful basketball game from the offensive end to the defensive end. From the tipoff to the final buzzer, we played probably the most complete game we’ve played all year.”
The Spartans (5-3) played in control throughout the entire game, turning the ball over just six times against an Olathe North squad intent on pressing the Spartans. Not only that, but the Spartans got a career-high 24 points from sophomore Taylor Euler, 17 points from Caydrick Bloomquist and 10 points from Kyle deBlonk.
“We played a pretty nice team,” Bloomquist said. “We played a team that’s not as talented as Highland Park, but they are probably as athletic as Highland Park.”
One big reason for Emporia’s 28-point win was the play of deBlonk. In what Bloomquist called deBlonk’s “break-out game for the season,” the 5-foot-10 senior guard grabbed six rebounds and dished out six assists in addition to his 10 points, giving him his most-complete all-around game of the season.
“He was awfully good. He played a smart, smart game, and more importantly, he played extremely hard,” Bloomquist said. “Kyle did a heck of a job on the defensive end and played a great offensive game. He helped everybody else get open.”
Emporia raced out to a 19-10 first-quarter lead and extended that advantage to 42-24 by halftime thanks to 17 first-half points from Euler.
Bloomquist said Euler proved to be too much for Olathe North (5-5) to handle in transition because of the way the Spartans were running their offense against Olathe North’s press.
“We’re flying Taylor Euler out, spreading him out and trying to isolate him on safeties, which are usually weaker defenders,” Bloomquist said. “We exploited that real well in the first half.”
Olathe North outscored the Spartans 17-15 in the third quarter before Emporia finished strong, scoring 17 points to just five for Olathe North in the fourth period.
Troy Pierce added nine points for EHS, and Seth Torres chipped in six points. Dillon Cox and Pierce joined deBlonk for team-high honors in rebounds with six apiece. Even senior Eric Dorsey, who had sat out the entire season with a broken foot, got some playing time, scoring three points in 1 minute, 20 seconds of action.
With the victory, Emporia advanced to the championship game of the Ralph Miller Classic, where the Spartans will meet No. 6 -ranked (Class 6A) Andover Central (10-0) at 3 p.m.