The game plan for the Emporia High girls basketball team heading into its matchup with Wichita Northwest Thursday night was fairly simple: Stop Angela Wood.
It took a half, but the Lady Spartans did eventually slow the hot-shooting Wood and the rest of the Lady Grizzlies, as EHS defeated Northwest, 63-36, in the first round of the Glacier’s Edge Tournament at Emporia High School.
“The plan was pretty much to just stay on (No.) 15 and have everyone else help on her,” said freshman Lindy Arndt, who drew the defensive assignment on Wood along with senior Jessica Muckenthaler. “She is good. She knows how to make her own shots, and she is tough to guard.”
Though Wood finished with 16 points on an array of acrobatic jumpers and off-balance shots, she was held to just seven points after halftime. Meanwhile, the Lady Spartans’ offense got hot after the intermission, turning a 27-21 lead into a 27-point victory by going 16-for-24 from the field in the second half.
“We didn’t take a lot of selfish shots, but we took too many shots in the first half that we could get any time,” EHS coach Bill Nienstedt said. “We tried to focus on getting all the way to the rim in the second half. I thought that made a big difference.”
The game’s defining stretch came when Emporia High (5-4) sandwiched an 18-2 run around the break between the third and fourth quarters to turn a six-point lead at 33-27 into a 51-29 advantage with 5 minutes, 30 second left in the game. A driving layup by Rachael Bachman got the run started at the 3:47 mark of the third period, and short jumpers by Lexi Hileman and Nichole Naab and a 3-pointer from the left wing by Muckenthaler made it 42-29 at the end of the quarter.
Sadie Webb scored on a lay-in 15 seconds into the fourth quarter and Naab hit two free throws to push the score to 46-29, and then a three-point play from Webb gave the Lady Spartans their first 20-point cushion. The scoring flurry was capped by a Naab lay-in off a Hileman miss, the final nail in the coffin for Northwest (2-9).
Naab said much of Emporia’s offensive success in the second half was because of the Lady Spartans’ team defense.
“We were playing good defense, which helped us get a lot of layups,” Naab said. “I thought we did pretty good in the primary break thanks to our defense. On offense, we want to push the ball all the time.”
While the Spartans were busy shutting down the Lady Grizzlies’ offense, Naab was busy having quite a game for herself. In the second half, Naab hits 6 of 8 shots from the floor and knocked down two free throws for 14 of her game-high 23 points. Paired with a first half that saw her make 4 of 8 shots and a free throw, the junior went 10-of-16 from the field on her way to surpassing her season high of 20 points, which she set on Jan. 9 against Highland Park.
“She’s obviously a very, very good shooter,” Nienstedt said of Naab. “We’ve got a team that can penetrate, and they know that getting the ball to her is probably a smart thing to do. I think she has become better offensively because she has become a lot better defensively. That has helped her confidence overall.”
With the victory, EHS moved on to the semifinals of the tournament to face Shawnee Mission East, which was a 61-50 winner over Topeka West. The game will be a rematch of the Lady Spartans’ season opener in which they lost, 36-34, to the Lady Lancers. The game will be at 8:30 tonight.
In other action Thursday night, Shawnee Heights defeated Leavenworth, 53-33, and Olathe East beat Highland Park, 60-32.
Glacier’s Edge Tournament
Wichita NW 8 13 8 7 — 36
Emporia 15 12 15 21 — 63
WICHITA NORTHWEST (2-9)
S. Luke 0-2 0-0 0, A. Wood 7-13 0-0 16, K. Kellogg 2-8 0-0 4, J. Broadhert 1-3 0-0 2, K. Simon 4-7 0-0 8, A. Trotter 0-1 0-0 0, B. Vrane 1-3 0-0 2, L. Read 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 17-39 0-0 36.
EMPORIA (5-4)
J. Muckenthaler 5-7 2-4 14, A. Armitage 1-4 0-0 2, R. Bachman 4-5 2-2 12, S. Webb 2-3 2-3 6, N. Naab 10-16 3-3 23, L. Hileman 3-9 0-0 6, L. Arndt 1-2 0-0 2. 26-46 9-12 63.
3-point goals — WNW 2-5 (Wood 2-3, Kellogg 0-1, Simon 0-1), Emporia 4-6 (Muckenthaler 2-2, Armitage 0-1, Bachman 2-2, Naab 0-1). Rebounds — WNW 16 (Wood 4), Emporia 24 (Hileman 5). Assists — WNW 5 (Kellogg 3), Emporia 9 (Muckenthaler 3). Turnovers — WNW 20, Emporia 12. Total fouls — WNW 12, Emporia 8. Fouled out — None.