Emporia High girls basketball coach Bill Nienstedt doesn’t believe much in moral victories, especially not in games where his team falls by 23 points like the Lady Spartans did last Friday against No. 4 Washburn Rural in a 66-43 loss.
However, the coach is a firm believer in the idea that a team can improve from such a loss, because he saw his team do just that in practice this week.
“I felt like our kids came out of the Washburn Rural game with their heads up, and believe it or not, we may actually have gained some confidence from that game,” Nienstedt said. “We thought that there were quite a few things we did well against Washburn Rural, and some of the things that cost us the game were outside of our control.”
The Lady Spartans (4-4) will get the chance to prove their coach’s theory correct starting tonight when they begin play in the Glacier’s Edge Tournament at Emporia High School. The EHS girls will face Wichita Northwest (2-8) at 7 p.m. in the varsity gymnasium.
While studying film on Northwest, and from what he remembered from past matchups against the Lady Grizzlies, Nienstedt said he saw a lot of the same characteristics and qualities in Northwest that he sees in his own team.
“We both have traditionally been man-to-man, pressure-defense teams,” he said. “There are just a lot of things that are similar about the systems that we both run, and that is probably an edge to both teams in terms of preparation.”
Both teams like to force turnovers to get their transition offense going, and it’s no secret that when the Lady Spartans get their opponents to make mistakes, the results have been much more favorable for EHS. In Emporia’s four wins, it has forced an average of 24 turnovers per game, and even forced Washburn Rural into 23 turnovers last Friday.
“That’s what we have to do to get turnovers, is contain them and force them into making mistakes,” junior Sadie Webb said. “Doing that can lead to us maybe getting steals or taking fouls.
“We definitely have to keep them in front of us and not let them get to the basket.”
Emporia High enters tonight’s game with one looming question mark. Webb, the Lady Spartans’ starting forward, fell in practice earlier this week and suffered a bruised lower back. She was set to have a doctor’s visit on Wednesday to find out just exactly what was wrong, since she said “it hurts really bad when I walk.”
As such, Webb is questionble for tonight’s game at least, and could be a game-time decision. Webb is averaging 9.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
Nevertheless, Webb said she liked her team’s chances heading into the tournament, saying that the Lady Spartans will have an edge on the other team’s because of the fact that they will be playing in front of the home crowd — finally. EHS has not played a true home game yet this season.
“It gives you an advantage to play at home, and we haven’t had that all season,” Webb said. “I think we can beat all the teams, but we’re going to have to play together and play defense well. It all comes down to defense and rebounds.”
Nichole Naab leads Emporia with a 12.6 points-per-game scoring average, while Jessica Muckenthaler chips in 9.8 points a contest.
Other first-round tournament games today are Shawnee Heights vs. Leavenworth at 5:30 p.m. in the varsity gym, Shawnee Mission East vs. Topeka West at 5:30 in the JV gym and Olathe East vs. Highland Park at 7 p.m. in the JV gym.
The Lady Spartans have faced four of the teams in the tournament field, with wins over Leavenworth and Highland Park and losses to Shawnee Mission East and Topeka West.